fyjWLL  'dujjluuz 


ARRAN  OF  THE  BENS 
THE  GLENS  AND  THE  BRAVE 


GOAT  FELL  FROM  THE  ROAD 
BETWEEN  LAMLASH  AND  BRODICK 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


ARRAN  OF  THE  BENS 

THE  GLENS  ftf  THE  BRAVE 

BY  MACKENZIE  MACBR1DE,  F.S.A.(SCOT.) 
WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  COLOUR  BY 
J.  LAWTON  WINGATE,  R.S.A. 


CHICAGO 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

EDINBURGH :  T.  N.  FOULIS 
1911 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN  ....       3 
II.  THE  LAND  BETWEEN  SKY  AND  WATER  .       8 

THE   HOLY  ISLAND 

III.  ARRAN'S  ROMANCES         .          .          .          .12 

KING  ROBERT  BRUCE  —  CROMWELL  AND 
ARRAN 

PART   II 

HISTORICAL  REMAINS 

IV.  ARRAN'S  ANCIENT  CHAPELS       .          .          .21 

KILBRIDE  —  KILMORY  —  SHISKEN  CHAPEL 
—  SANNOX  CHAPEL  —  GLEN  ASHDALE 
CHAPEL 

V.  ARRAN'S  CASTLES  .          .          .          .          .27 

BRODICK     CASTLE  —  LOCHRANZA    CASTLE— THE 
GEOLOGY  OF  ARRAN 


2066170 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PACK 

VI.  THE  CAVES  OF  ARRAN  .  31 

FINGAL'S  CAVE  — THE  PREACHING  CAVE 
AT  KILPATRICK  — THE  WONDROUS  BAUL 
OF  SAINT  MULUY 


PART  III 

ARRAN  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

VII.  ARRAN  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY         .      40 

THE  OLD  RUNRIG  SYSTEM — JOHN  BURRELL 
—  HIS  SCHEME  OF  IMPROVEMENT  —  THE 
GREAT  REVOLUTION  —  SMUGGLING  IN 
ARRAN  —  FAMOUS  ARRAN  PREACHERS  — 
THE  ARRAN  EVICTIONS  — WHAT  PENNANT 
SAW— ARRAN  AND  THE  FORTY-FIVE 


PART  IV 

THE  BRANDANI 

VIII.  OLD  FAMILIES  IN  ARRAN         .          .          .69 

THE  ARRAN  AND  BUTE  BARONS 

IX.  THE  BRANDANES  .          .          .          .76 

OR,  MEN  OF  ARRAN  AND   BUTE 

X.  THE  LANGUAGE  OF  ARRAN    -  <          .  .81 

THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  FIRST  GAELIC 
DICTIONARY  :  WILLIAM  SHAW  — DANIEL 
MACMILLAN 


CONTENTS  vii 

PART  V 
OUR  EARLY  ANCESTORS  IN  ARRAN 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XI.  ARRAN'S  WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     91 

THE  ETHNOLOGY  OF  ARRAN 

XII.  ANCIENT  FORTS  AND  CAMPS      .  .         .103 

DRUMADOON— TOR  CAISTEAL— GLEN  ASH- 
DALE— KING'S  CROSS— DUN  FION— CRAIG 
NA  CUIROCH — TORNANSCHIAN 

PART  VI 

ARRAN— THE  BATTLE-GROUND  OF 
THE  VIKING  AGE 

XIII.  ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  .          .          -113 

THE  CHRISTIANS  OF  IONA — THE  VALE  OF 
SHISKEN  AND  MACHRIE  MOOR 

XIV.  THE  ARRAN  MEN  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUN- 

ANBURH       .....      126 

THE    FLEET    IN    LAMLASH    BAY— MAGNUS 
BAREFOOT 

XV.  SOMERLED,  THE  HAMMER  OF  THE  NORSEMEN    136 

XVI.  How  KING  HAKON  FOUGHT  AT  LARGS       .    145 

XVII.  KING  HAKON  AT  LAMLASH    .  .  .154 

PART  VII 

THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE 
XVIII.  THE  GREAT  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE.        .    159 

THE  BATTLE  OF  STIRLING  BRIDGE— THE 
BRANDANES  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  FALKIRK 
— HOW  THE  BRANDANES  COVERED  THE 
RETREAT — THE  BRANDANES  AT  PERTH — 
EDWARD'S  VENGEANCE 


viii  CONTENTS 

PART  VIII 

HOW  THE  ARRAN  MEN  SHELTERED 
KING  ROBERT  BRUCE 

CHAP.  PAGB 

XIX.  THE  AMBUSH  AT  BRODICK  CASTLE  .          .189 

BRUCE  AND  THE  SPIDER — THE  RED  LIGHT 
ON  TURNBERRY  BEACON— THE  BRANDANES 
AT  BANNOCKBURN 

PART   IX 

WHAT  THE  BRANDANES  DID  FOR 
THE  STEWARTS 

XX.  WHAT    THE     BRANDANES    DID     FOR     THE 

STEWARTS  .          .          .          .  207 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  STONES  —  THE 
STEWARD'S  ESCAPE  FROM  ROTHESAY 
CASTLE— THE  KING'S  BODYGUARD— THE 
BATTLES  OF  WILLIAM  THE  LYON  AND 
THE  DISASTER  AT  PINKIE 

PART  X 

THE  LATER  LORDS  OF  ARRAN 
XXI.  THE  LATER  LORDS  OF  ARRAN  .    221 

THE  BOYDS  —  THE  HAMILTONS  —  "  LADY 
MARY  " 


ILLUSTRAT I ONS 

Reproduced  from    Oil  Paintings  by 
J.  LAWTON  WINGATE,  R.S. A. 

GOATFELL      FROM      THE      R.OAD      BETWEEN 

LAMLASH  AND  BRODICK  .           .           .  Frontispiece 

SUNSET  AT  MOUTH  OF  THE  MACHRIE        .  Page     8 
AILSA   CRAIG   AND   PLADDA    LIGHTHOUSE 

FROM   KlLDONAN    ....  „        16 

LOCHRANZA  AND  CASTLE        .           .           .  „     24 

OLD  BRIDGE  :  NORTH  GLEN  SANNOX         .  „     40 

CORN  CUTTING            ....  ,,56 

OLD  ARRAN  HOUSES,  WHITING  BAY          .  „     72 

HARVESTING — TORMORE        ...  „     88 

CAISTEAL  ABHAIL        .           .           .           .  „    104 

THE  EDGE  OF  THE  SHISKEN  MOOR           .  ,,120 

DRUMADOON  BAY        .           .           .           .  ,,136 

THE  OLD  PIER,  LAMLASH,  AND  THE  HOLY 

ISLAND       .....  ,,152 

CLOUDS  MOVING  OVER  A  MOOR  :  BEN  ARD- 

VEN  IN  DISTANCE            ...  „    168 

GREY  CLOUD  LAND  :  SOUND  OF  KILBRANNAN  „    184 

WHITING  BAY  FROM  THE  KILDONAN  ROAD  „    200 

THE    APPROACH    OF    NIGHT — OVER    THE 

SOUND  OF  KILBRANNAN  .  ,216 


ARRAN 

"  HERE,  as  of  old,  the  dreaming  hours  fulfil 
Their  ancient  pledge,  and  flower  in  sunlit  days 
Above  thy  pastoral  slopes  and  wave-washed  bays 
Where  melody  and  colour  merge  and  thrill. 
Thy  chosen  Priestess,  Beauty,  beckons  still 
From  whin-clad  straths  and  heather-haunted  ways, 
Or  lies  in  wait  along  the  scented  braes, 
Or  chains  a  leafy  thought  from  hill  to  hill. 

Bruce  found  a  shelter,  lovely  Isle,  in  thee 
When  o'er  his  head  the  cloud  of  menace  rolled, 
He  saw  thy  rock-strewn  mountains  tipped  with  gold 
When  morning  mounted  sovran  from  the  sea, 
And  on  thy  bosom,  fold  on  misty  fold, 
Beheld  her  dew-stained  garments  floating  free." 

FERDINAND  E.  KAPPEY. 


. 


PART  I 
THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN 


CHAPTER    I 
THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN 

BOTH  the  stranger  and  the  native  find  some- 
thing peculiarly  alluring  in  Arran;  and,  though 
it  is  but  a  small  island  of  twenty  odd  miles 
by  seven,  and  the  world  is  a  large  place,  few 
who  have  known  it  fail  to  keep  it  amongst 
their  cherished  remembrances.  I  know  an 
artist  who  has  visited  it  regularly  for  forty 
years,  and  who  starts  again  this  autumn  with 
a  full  programme  of  work  already  mapped  out, 
and  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit  that  much 
of  his  best  work  he  owes  to  the  pastoral 
loveliness  and  fine  atmospheric  effects  so 
notable  in  the  south  of  Arran.  There  are 
many,  too,  who,  after  thirty  or  forty  years 
spent  in  the  busiest  cities,  have  been  glad  to 
turn  their  steps  to  their  native  island ;  others 
there  are  who,  in  the  full  tide  of  manhood, 


4  ARRAN 

have  forsaken  the  excitements  of  America 
and  Australia  and  come  home  to  settle  in 
the  smallest  of  villages  close  by  Kilbrannan 
Sound.  Paterson,  a  Lowlander,  writing  in 
1 834,  says:  "That  the  Highlanders  of  Scotland 
feel  the  love  of  country  very  strongly  is  unques- 
tionable ;  and  that  it  has  a  beneficial  effect  on 
their  moral  conduct  is  as  certain.  The  dread 
of  being  expelled  from  Arran  has  more 
efficacy  in  restraining  those  of  its  inhabitants 
who  may  be  inclined  to  dishonest,  vicious,  or 
idle  courses,  than  all  the  penal  laws  in  force." 
What,  then,  is  it  that  Arran  holds  that  is  so 
great  an  attraction  ?  It  is  probably  no  one 
thing :  the  wonderful  beauty  of  the  Brodick 
lanes,  with  their  views  of  Goatfell's  great 
peak  varied  in  character  daily,  nay  sometimes 
hourly,  but  always  lovely  and  commanding  ; 
the  sweet  scent  of  the  surrounding  woods, 
fir  and  birch,  myrtle  and  heath,  and  of  the 
hundred  and  one  wild  flowers  of  Arran, 
all  lend  their  subtle  contributions.  But,  in- 
deed, the  whole  of  the  great  groups  of  hills 
which  stretch  across  the  centre  of  the  island, 
ranging  in  height  from  the  2866  feet  of  Goat- 


THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN  5 

fell  to  600  or  800  feet  in  the  southern  district, 
have  qualities  which  are  rare.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  find  in  a  small  space,  even  in  Skye 
of  the  Mists  or  Mull  of  the  Bens,  mountains 
as  weird,  black,  titanic  as  the  Devil's  Punch 
Bowl  or  Cioch  nan  h'oige  (the  Maiden's 
Breast),  which  alters  so  swiftly,  mystically  ; 
now  almost  invisible,  merged  in  the  surround- 
ing peaks,  now  a  mere  cone  leaning  obliquely 
southward ;  while  now,  seen  from  Sannox 
moor,  it  stands  up  threateningly,  overwhelm- 
ingly, right  above  you.  Nor  in  all  the  hills  of 
the  west  can  there  be  found  anything  so  like 
an  enchanted  fortress  of  the  Arabian  Nights 
as  the  wonderful  Caisteal  Abhail  (Casteel 
Aval),  crowning  its  huge  granite  crag  over 
sheer  black  precipices  nearly  three  thousand 
feet  below.  And  this  is  not  all,  for  the  great 
hill  at  the  back,  Ceum  na  Cailleach,  is  formed 
in  the  same  cyclopean  spirit,  and  its  fantastic 
pinnacles  seem  to  tell  of  further  battlements 
beyond  for  those  to  climb  who  would  attempt 
the  strongholds  of  the  gods.  And  there 
again,  to  the  left  of  wonderful  Sannox  glen, 
stands  Cir  Mhor,  aloft,  aloof,  filling  up  in 


6  ARRAN 

solitary  grandeur  the  space  between  Caisteal 
Abhail  and  Cioch  nan  h'oige.  Where  can  we 
see  anything  as  strange  and  fantastical  as  this 
group  approached  from  Sannox  glen  ? 

But,  of  course,  it  may  be  seen  from  many 
parts  of  the  island,  nay,  it  is  difficult  to  lose, 
it  is  everywhere,  much  as  the  Paps  of  Jura 
Island  are  visible  over  half  the  Kintyre  coast, 
or  the  Goatfell  group  are  everywhere  with  us 
when  we  journey  in  southern  Arran  or  on  the 
coast  of  Ayr  and  Renfrew.  Mr.  Lawton  Win- 
gate  gives  us  a  charming  distant  view  of  this 
range,  for  instance,  from  Largybeg ;  and  a 
mountain  climber,  Mr.  Stewart  Orr,  has  sat 
lovingly  close  to  the  heart  of  the  hills  through 
dark  nights  in  order  to  give  us  his  pictures  of 
their  more  intimate  and  undiscovered  moods 
when  flushed  with  the  rosy  colours  of  the 
dawn. 

Certainly  much  of  the  charm  of  Arran  arises 
from  the  presence  of  this  stately  concourse ; 
but  they  are  not  all  the  hills  the  island  boasts. 
Am  Bhinnean  in  the  same  neighbourhood  has 
many  moods,  and  looks  down  upon  us,  from 
above  the  white  cottages  and  stretch  of  wood 


THE  CHARM  OF  ARRAN  7 

on  the  Corrie  shore,  with  all  the  dignity  and 
splendour  of  a  Sultan. 

The  Cuchullin  range  in  Skye,  though  it  has 
the  upright  peaks,  lacks  the  grand  horizontal 
lines  like  that  of  Suidhe-Feargus,  which  at 
Sannox  are  so  finely  symmetrical,  and  group 
so  superbly  round  that  solemn  and  inspiring 
spot. 

The  next  view  in  point  of  grandeur  is 
perhaps  that  of  Goatfell  towering  up  over  the 
woods  of  Brodick  Castle,  seen  from  the  cross 
roads,  and  along  the  Corrie  shore  as  far  as 
Ard  na  Beithe  (point  of  the  birch  trees).  The 
view,  especially  on  a  grey  and  sultry  day,  so 
subtly  Oriental  in  suggestion,  so  wide,  so  do- 
minated by  the  bare  outline  of  the  great  cone 
rising  out  of  the  beech  woods  and  pastures, 
cannot  be  equalled  in  the  West  Highlands  for 
its  power  of  capturing  the  senses,  save  perhaps 
in  the  approach  to  Benmore  from  the  Holy 
Loch  in  Cowal,  or  the  view  of  the  Paps  of 
Glencoe  from  Ballachulish. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  LAND  BETWEEN  SKY  AND  WATER 

Merrily  rocks  the  boat, 
The  Bell-buoy  tosses  and  twirls, 

And  the  bubbles  that  shoreward  float 
Are  as  full  of  colour  as  pearls. 

All  the  hues  of  the  prism  they  show— 

The  glitter  of  crimson  dyes, 
The  orange  of  sunset  glow, 

And  the  purple  of  morning  skies. 

The  sands  are  a  silver  sheet, 
And  the  waves  a  revel  of  light, 

Where  motion  and  music  meet, 
And  colour  and  form  unite. 

From  the  black  cliffs  perilous  steeps, 
The  grass  in  the  gale  swings  free  ; 

The  sea  in  the  sunlight  leaps, 

And  the  great  clouds  dip  to  the  sea. 

DAVID  Gow. 

Who  again  has  not,  like  Mr.  David  Gow, 
felt  the  spell  of  Arran's  waters,  sparkling  and 
flashing  with  a  million  white  crests,  breaking 


SUNSET  AT  MOUTH  OF  THE  MACHRIE 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAIVTON  WINGATE,  R.S.A. 


THE  LAND  BETWEEN  SKY  AND  WATER     9 

sharp  and  clear  as  crystals  on  rock  and  shingle, 
or  rolling  creamily  like  liquid  amber  on  some 
smooth  stretch  of  pink-white  sand.  Its  seas, 
too,  have  a  thousand  shades  of  green,  from 
fairest  olive  to  deepest  emerald  ;  its  burns  a 
thousand  tones  of  brown,  from  that  of  a  dark 
cairngorm  stone  to  the  yellow  of  a  cornelian. 
And  just  so  the  mists  and  distances  vary  in 
shades  of  grey  and  blue  as  delicate  as  that  of 
the  mantle  of  Queen  Maev  herself,  famous  in 
Keltic  story.  The  passing  shower  or  the 
passing  cloud  coming  down  from  the  narrow 
seas  to  northward,  or  up  over  Pladda  and  Ailsa 
Craig ;  or  the  storm-wind  from  the  Atlantic 
that  breaks  on  the  shores  of  her  old  kinsman 
in  legend  and  in  blood,  Kintyre ;  all  these 
reflect  jewellery  of  rare  colours  upon  Arran 
seas  and  burns  and  hills.  Lying  prone  be- 
tween sky  and  water,  it  vibrates  and  reflects 
like  a  sensitive  maid  all  the  moods  of  nature 
— smiles,  storms,  tears.  Certainly  if  it  is 
monotony  that  kills,  then  one  should  live 
longest  in  Arran,  changeful  as  sweet  seventeen 
herself,  least  monotonous  of  lands.  There 
Nature's  hand  never  stays,  is  never  idle.  Com- 


io  ARRAN 

pare  it  to  an  Italian  coast,  where  she  dawdles 
and  languishes  under  a  sky  of  perpetual  blue 
and  a  blazing  sun.  East  is  not  more  remote 
from  west,  or  north  from  south,  or  the 
gorgeous  wardrobe  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
from  that  of  a  London  scullery-maid. 


THE    HOLY    ISLAND 

Another  of  Arran's  charms  is  certainly  cast 
by  the  Holy  Island  in  the  famous  bay  of 
Lamlash.  There  gathered  the  fleet  that 
fought  the  Saxon  King  Athelstan  at  the 
great  battle  of  Brunanburh,  made  famous  in 
the  finest  of  early  English  poems ;  there 
too,  many  centuries  later,  came  Hakon  of 
Norway  with  his  ships,  which,  tempest  aided, 
the  Scottish  king  defeated  utterly.  Thus 
Arran  was  made  the  scene  of  the  last  act  in 
the  Norse  incursions  on  the  western  coast,  as  it 
not  improbably  had  been  of  the  first,  for  it 
must  have  tempted  all  comers  by  its  exposed 
position  and  the  wealth  of  the  industrious 
plain  of  Shisken  and  Machrie.  To  the  Holy 
Island  came  also  St.  Molios,  who  lived  in 


THE  LAND  BETWEEN  SKY  AND  WATER     n 

the  cave  associated  with  his  name,  on  the 
walls  of  which  have  been  deciphered  some 
runic  characters.  These  were  once  held  to 
refer  to  Nicolas,  a  priest  of  Argyll ;  but  a 
writer  in  The  Book  of  Arran  now  states 
that  they  refer  to  a  prosaically  named  Norse- 
man, possibly  a  mere  trader,  one  Uilaeikr 
Stallr ;  much  as  the  white  stone  which  was 
discovered  by  Mr.  Pickwick  was  proved  to 
bear  the  words  "  Bill  Stumps,  his  mark." 
The  island,  like  in  shape  to  a  lion  couchant, 
forms  a  most  picturesque  outpost  to  the 
southern  end  of  the  great  bay  of  Brodick. 


CHAPTER  III 

ARRAN'S  ROMANCES 

MANY  races  have  left  their  mark  on  Arran, 
have  spilt  their  blood  to  hold  it,  have  left  their 
romances  behind  upon  its  hill-tops  and  its 
shores  to  redeem  it  from  the  commercialism  of 
our  time.  The  men  of  the  Stone  Age,  of  the 
Bronze  period,  the  early  Keltic  period,  did 
each  some  little  to  emancipate  it  from  bar- 
barism, till  the  splendid  Dalriadic  colonists 
came  and  finally  broke  its  chains,  making  it 
partaker  for  a  time  of  the  noblest  civilisation 
the  world  has  yet  known.  But  alas !  its 
very  wealth  brought  the  Norse  sea-rover  who 
destroyed  all,  all  but  the  fighting,  clannish 
instinct  of  the  "  Kelt "  which  was  to  overcome 
the  Northman  in  the  end,  so  that  not  one 
fragment  of  all  his  conquests  should  remain 
to  him.  Of  course,  it  is  always  more  easy 


ARRAN'S  ROMANCES  13 

to  destroy  than  to  create,  and  so  a  rough 
hammer  may  shatter  the  Portland  vase,  a 
rough  sword  the  monastery  of  lona,  and  all 
the  promise  of  good  that  lay  in  Dalriada. 

Arran  was  at  that  time  no  wilderness ;  it 
was  only  six  miles  distant  from  the  capital  of 
a  race  who  had  been  Christians  for  some  500 
years,  and  whose  blood  it  undoubtedly  shared : 
a  race  who  were  skilled  in  the  arts  as  their 
forbears  in  Ireland  had  been  for  centuries, 
and  possessed  some  of  the  learning  and  the 
refinement  which  had  made  Ireland  famous, 
and  attracted  to  her  shores  scholars  from 
every  nation.  The  immense  difference  be- 
tween them  and  the  Norse  intruders  is 
curiously  illustrated  in  the  following  passage 
from  Mr.  Henderson's  Norse  Influence  on 
Celtic  Scotland — "The  kindly  temperament 
of  King  Brian  of  Munster,  heightened  by  his 
belief  probably,  was  noticeable  to  the  Saga 
writer,  and  I  may  adduce  it  as  a  parallel  to 
the  softening  influence  which  contact  with 
the  West  men  sooner  or  later  produced  in  the 
fierce  followers  of  Odin.  '  He  (Brian),'  says 
the  Saga,  '  was  the  best-natured  of  all  kings  ; 


i4  ARRAN 

thrice  would  he  forgive  all  outlaws  the  same 
offence  before  he  had  them  tried  by  the  law, 
and  from  this  it  will  be  seen  what  a  king  he 
must  have  been.' ' 

KING    ROBERT    BRUCE 

Arran  is  also  famous  as  the  place  where 
Robert  Bruce  sought  shelter  when  in  hiding 
from  the  soldiers  of  Edward  of  England. 
Tradition  has  it  that  to  avoid  his  pursuers 
he  moved  about  the  island,  sheltering  at  one 
time  in  the  famous  King's  Cave  at  Drum- 
adoon,  and  at  another  at  the  ancient  pre- 
historic fort  in  beautiful  Glen  Cloy,  called 
Tor  na'  shian,  or  Mound  of  the  Fairies,  from 
which  a  view  is  obtained  of  the  whole  of  the 
glen.  There,  too,  it  is  said,  when  hunted  by 
bloodhounds,  he  used  to  take  exercise  by 
wading  up  and  down  the  Glen  Cloy  burn  at 
High  Glen  Cloy,  where  it  runs  under  the 
fine  woods  of  Kilmichael,  the  home  of  the 
MacLouies  or  Fullartons. 

Whether  or  not  the  name  of  Glenrickard, 
which  lies  above  the  grounds  of  Kilmichael, 
refers  to  the  story  of  Bruce  in  Glen  Cloy,  I 


ARRAN'S  ROMANCES  15 

cannot  say,  but  the  name  seems  to  have  no 
connection  with  the  word  "  Rickard,"  as  the 
Ordnance  Department  seem  to  have  supposed. 
The  pronunciation  of  a  friend,  who  has  lived 
in  the  glen  all  his  life  of  some  sixty  or  more 
years,  is  "  Glenreegart,"  a  name  derived 
probably  from  the  Gaelic  words  glen  and  righ 
andgart,  which  give  us  the  glen  of  the  king's 
sanctuary  or  enclosure.  The  name  may,  of 
course,  be  of  earlier  origin  than  the  time  of 
Bruce,  and  might  have  been  acquired  from 
some  legend  invented  to  account  for  the  great, 
twenty  feet  long,  chambered  cairn  in  which 
were  buried  our  remote  forbears,  chiefs,  and 
kings.  It  is  now  a  children's  plaything. 

"  Imperious  Caesar,  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away." 

The  site  of  the  original  Kilmichael  house 
was  on  the  spot  where  Dr.  Robertson- 
Fullarton  has  erected  his  observatory,  and  the 
ruins  of  Kilmichael  Church  were  still  visible 
a  little  to  the  north-east  of  this  spot,  close 
to  the  Glen  Cloy  burn,  in  Pennant's  time. 

Arran  has  also  long  been  regarded  as  the 


16  ARRAN 

scene  of  the  exploits  of  Fion  (Fune)  or  Finn, 
and  many  place  names  tell  of  him  and  his 
followers,    and    of     Ossian     and     Malvina. 
Indeed,   many  persons  have    held    that   the 
much  disputed  name,  Arran,  is  from  Ar  Finn, 
the   land  of  Finn,  while  others  state  that  it 
is  from  Ar  rinn,  or  land  of  the  peaks ;  but 
the  evidence   seems    insufficient    to  warrant 
a  decided  judgment  in  favour   of   either  of 
these  theories.     It    is    clear  that    Fion  and 
Ossian  never  had  an  existence  in  actual  fact, 
but  are  of  purely  mythological  origin,  like  the 
great  Gaelic  legend  in  which  they  figure ;  but  so 
strong  was  the  influence  of  the  old  mythology 
in  the  West  at  one  time,  and  so  saturated 
were  the  Arran  people  with  the  legends  of 
the  Feinne,  that  one  is  inclined  to  favour  the 
definition  of  Ar  Finn.     The  name  of  the  hill 
Suidhe  Feargus,  in  Glen  Sannox,  is  that  of 
Fion's  son,  and  its  beautiful  outline  is  well 
worthy  of  the  great  romance  linked  with  its 
name. 


AILSA  CRAIG  AND  PLADDA  LIGHT- 
HOUSE FROM  KILDONAN 

From  a  painting  bv 
J.  LAIVTON  IYINGATE,  R.S.A. 


ARRAN'S  ROMANCES  17 

CROMWELL   AND    ARRAN 

During  the  wars  of  Charles  i.  the  Hamiltons 
stood  for  the  King,  but  Brodick  Castle  was 
held  at  different  times  by  both  parties,  and 
when  the  Earl  of  Stafford  was  about  to  reduce 
the  West  of  Scotland  to  obedience,  Argyll,  with 
the  Covenanters,  took  possession  of  Brodick. 
In  1644  the  Marquis  was  created  Duke  of 
Hamilton  for  his  services  to  Charles,  but  paid 
for  his  loyalty  with  his  head  when  the  Par- 
liament finally  overthrew  the  King.  The 
Dutch  ships  were  at  that  time  hovering  about 
the  Outer  Hebrides,  and  Cromwell's  govern- 
ment had  fear  of  them  seizing  the  islands. 
They  therefore  garrisoned  Brodick,  and  built 
the  tower  on  the  north-east  side.  The 
islanders,  however,  were  enraged  at  the 
execution  of  their  chief,  and  resented  also  the 
rough  manners  of  the  soldiery,  who  insulted 
their  wives  and  daughters.  They  therefore 
set  a  trap  for  them  when  they  were  out 
foraging,  and  after  chasing  them  along  the 
Corrie  shore,  caught  them  at  Sannox,  and 
put  them  to  the  sword,  the  last  being  slain, 


i8  ARRAN 

according  to  tradition,  at  the  "  Killing  Stone," 
on  the  Sannox  shore.  The  next  duke  fought 
and  died  for  Charles  n.  at  Worcester,  and 
with  him  were  present  the  islanders,  together 
with  the  other  Highland  clans. 


PART    II 
HISTORICAL   REMAINS 


CHAPTER  IV 

ARRAN'S  ANCIENT  CHAPELS 

MOST  interesting  of  the  old  churches  of 
Arran  is  the  little  chapel  of  St.  Bride  at  Lam- 
lash,  where  rest  the  remains  of  many  genera- 
tions of  Arran  people.  In  old  times,  possibly 
before  the  use  of  Kilbride  graveyard,  the 
burial-ground  on  the  Holy  Island  was  also 
popular  as  a  burying-place. 

KILBRIDE 

In  1357  the  churches  of  Kilbride  and 
Kilmory  were  given  by  the  lord  of  Arran, 
Sir  John  Menteith,  to  the  monks  of  Kilmory, 
with  their  chapels.  The  charter  of  King 
David  ii.,  confirming  the  gift,  is  of  some 
interest.  It  reads  as  follows — "To  all  the  chil- 
dren of  the  blessed  Mother  Church  now  living, 
or  yet  to  be  born,  who  may  see  or  hear  these 


22  ARRAN 

present  writings,  read  : — John  of  Menteith, 
lord  of  Arran  and  of  Knapdale.  Health  in 
the  Lord  for  ever.  Know  that  I  for  the 
good  of  my  soul,  and  that  of  Katherine  my 
late  wife,  and  for  the  good  of  the  souls  of  our 
ancestors  and  successors,  have  given,  granted, 
and  by  this  present  charter  of  mine,  confirmed 
to  God  and  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  to 
good  Wynnyn  and  to  the  monastery  of 
Kylwynne  in  Conyngham,  to  the  abbots  and 
monks  there  worshipping  God,  and  to  those 
who  will  worship  him  there  for  ever,  the  right 
of  presentation  and  patronage  of  the  churches 
of  St.  Mary  and  St.  Bride  in  the  island  of 
Arran,  with  their  chapels,  and  with  all  other 
properties  which  to  the  said  churches,  with 
their  chapels  and  lands,  by  right  belong,  to 
be  held  and  possessed  by  the  said  monastery 
and  monks  for  ever,  with  all  rights  belonging 
to  them  in  fee-simple,  and  perpetual  alms." 

In  1452  James  n.  gave  the  crown  lands 
of  Kilbride  and  Kilmory,  which  yielded  an 
annual  rent  of  ^56,  i8s.  8d.,  to  the  Canons  of 
Glasgow  for  a  sum  of  eight  hundred  marks 
which  had  been  lent  by  them  to  the  King. 


ANCIENT  CHAPELS  23 

In  1540  the  lands  had  again  come  into  the 
possession  of  the  crown,  and  Kilbride  was 
then  granted  to  Sir  James  Hamilton  with 
the  Earldom  of  Arran.  Innes  says  the 
church  stood  originally  on  the  north-west 
shore  of  Lamlash  bay,  on  the  spot  marked  in 
Blaeu's  map  "  Marknaheglish."  There  are  a 
few  sculptured  stones  of  interest  in  the  grave- 
yard, but  many  more  have  been  destroyed. 
The  most  interesting  and  important  was  the 
ancient  cross,  which  for  many  years  lay  on 
the  family  grave  of  the  late  Mr.  John  Mac- 
Bride,  who  formerly  farmed  the  Holy  Island. 
On  the  removal  of  the  stones  from  the  burial- 
ground  there  he  brought  it  to  Kilbride.  It 
has  been  recently  removed  to  the  front  of  the 
parish  church  at  Lamlash.  Stones  of  this 
type  were  often  erected  in  graveyards  where 
no  church  stood,  to  mark  the  sacred  character 
of  the  place. 

KILMORY 

Innes  and  the  New  Statistical  Account 
state  that  the  old  church  of  Kilmory  stood 
on  the  farm  of  Bennicarigan.  The  foundation 


24  ARRAN 

stone  showed  a  building  of  nineteen  feet  by 
ten  feet,  and  around  it  were  some  ancient 
gravestones.  The  graveyard  is  still  in  use. 

The  church  was  granted  to  the  monks  of 
Kilwinning  in  1357,  at  which  time  Sir  Bean 
not  "Saint  Bean,"  as  has  been  stated  ("Sir" 
was  the  ordinary  title  of  a  priest),  was  Rector. 
Kilmory  is  supposed  to  have  passed  to  the 
Hamiltons  in  1503. 

The  present  church  was  built  in  1785. 
Kilmory  Well  was  at  one  time  famous  on 
account  of  its  supposed  miraculous  healing 
properties. 

SHISKEN    CHAPEL 

The  old  chapel  or  cell  of  St.  Molios  stood 
in  the  centre  of  the  present  graveyard,  on  the 
spot  now  railed  in  as  a  grave  by  the  Thomson 
family.  The  famous  sculptured  figure,  always 
supposed  to  represent  St.  Molios,  stood  upon 
this  spot.  Mr.  Charles  Mac  Bride  of  Shedag, 
who  tested  the  place  with  a  spade  some  time 
ago,  "came  upon  stone  and  lime,"  as  he 
cautiously  puts  it.  This  was  probably  part  of 
the  foundation  of  the  old  chapel  of  the  saint. 


LOCHRANZA  AND  CASTLE 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


ANCIENT  CHAPELS  25 

The  sculptured  stone  has  lately  been  built 
into  the  wall  of  the  neighbouring  modern 
church  of  St.  Molios.  It  represents  an  abbot 
with  his  pastoral  staff,  holding  a  chalice  in  his 
hands. 

The  hamlet  or  clachan  of  St.  Molios,  which 
grew  up  round  his  cell,  stood  on  the  site  of 
the  now  dismantled  chapel  of  Kilmichael  close 
by.  The  position  of  the  old  graveyard  and 
ruined  church  at  the  entrance  to  the  glen,  with 
the  burn  in  the  foreground,  is  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  and  truly  old-world  sights  in 
Arran. 

SANNOX    CHAPEL 

Of  Sannox  Chapel  there  is  no  vestige  left. 
At  the  entrance  of  the  beautifully  situated 
graveyard  the  figure  of  an  ecclesiastic  has 
been  built  for  safety  into  the  stone  dike.  It  is 
supposed  to  represent  the  saint  to  whom  the 
chapel  was  dedicated.  Even  his  name  is  not 
quite  certain,  but  the  place  is  supposed  to 
have  been  dedicated  to  St.  Michael,  like  so 
many  churches  in  the  West  Highlands.  In 
the  graveyard  were  buried  the  remains  of 


26  ARRAN 

Edwin  R.  Rose,  the  young  English  tourist 
who  was  so  cruelly  murdered  by  a  stranger 
named  Laurie,  on  Goatfell,  in  July  1889.  A 
rough  boulder-stone  covers  his  grave. 

GLEN   ASHDALE    CHAPEL 

There  was  once  a  chapel  in  Glen  Ashdale, 
in  size  about  ten  feet  by  twelve.  Both  chapel 
and  burial-ground  are  now  almost  indistin- 
guishable, like  that  in  Glen  Cloy.  There 
were  also  chapels,  as  the  names  suggest,  at 
Kilbride  Bennan,  at  Kilpatrick,  at  Balnacula 
(St.  Eoin's),  at  Auchengallon,  at  Lochranza 
(St.  Bride's),  and  at  Kildonan. 


CHAPTER  V 

ARRAN'S  CASTLES 

OF  old  Brodick  Castle  only  one  end,  and  the 
stones  used  by  the  old  builders  and  part  of 
the  plan  and  outline,  now  remain.  It  has  been 
practically  rebuilt  many  times,  and  was  com- 
pletely modernised  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  None  the  less,  there  are 
few  castles  can  compare  with  it  in  associations, 
and  fewer  still  have  been  taken  and  re-taken 
as  often  as  Brodick.  In  the  re-building  of 
1 844,  referred  to,  a  heavy  tower  was  built  up 
on  the  remains  of  the  old  walls,  and  one 
winter's  night  the  tower  fell  with  a  tremendous 
crash.  Brodick's  chief  interest  lies  now  in  its 
splendid  position  and  its  associations  with  a 
hundred  wild  forays,  with  fire  and  with  sword. 
Among  the  keepers  of  Arran  Castle  have 
been — 


28  ARRAN 

A.D. 

1296     Sir  John  Stewart  of  Menteith. 
(about) 

1305  Thomas  Bisset  of  the  Glens,  in  Ireland,  and 
(about)       of  Rathlin. 

1306  Sir  John  Hastings. 

1313  Sir  John  Stewart  of  Menteith. 

1445  William  Stewart  (nephew  of  Robert  n.). 

1488  Hugh,  Lord  Montgomery. 

1526  George  Tait. 

1579  Ninian  Stewart. 

1586  Patrick  Hamilton. 

1588  Paul  Hamilton. 

LOCHRANZA    CASTLE 

One  of  the  finest  sights  in  the  West  High- 
lands is  the  old  royal  castle  of  Lochranza, 
standing,  superbly  set,  on  its  narrow  peninsula 
of  sand,  with  the  water  at  its  feet  and  the  crags 
above,  and  all  the  wealth  of  reds  and  browns 
of  the  sea  margin  giving  the  place  its  wonder- 
ful colouring.  The  cottages  and  hills  and 
distant  view  down  Glen  Chamadale  add 
another  interest  to  a  picture  already  wild  and 
lovely. 

The  castle,  once  a  royal  residence  or  hunt- 
ing lodge,  is  now  in  ruins,  though  only  one  hun- 


CASTLES  29 

dredand  forty  years  ago  it  was  seemingly  quite 
habitable.  Its  plan  is  that  of  a  typical  Scottish 
castle,  rather  better  than  the  mere  peel  tower. 
On  the  first  floor  the  hall  measured  some  74  ft. 
by  23  ft.,  and  was  lit  by  three  windows.  The 
floor  was  boarded,at  any  rate  in  later  times.  The 
castle  possessed  the  luxury  of  a  kitchen,  and 
on  the  first  floor  was  also  another  room.  The 
place  is  mentioned  by  Fordun  in  1400.  It  was 
given  by  John  of  Menteith  to  Duncan  Camp- 
bell of  Lochawe  in  1433,  and  in  1445  was  occu- 
pied by  Ronald  MacAllister  as  Captain,  at 
which  time  he  was  also  tenant  of  certain  crown 
lands  in  the  island,  for  which  he  paid  a  rent  of 
£16,  6s.  8d.,  and  twelve  bolls  of  bear.  As 
Donal  Balloch  had  about  this  time  laid  his 
lands  waste,  MacAllister  refused  to  pay  his 
rent.  The  castle  and  lands  of  Lochranza, 
Cattadell,  the  two  Tonregeys  (now  barbar- 
ously called  Thundergay),  and  other  lands 
were  given  by  James  n.  to  Alexander,  Lord 
Montgomery.  His  grandson  was  created 
Earl  of  Eglinton,  and  in  1488  was  keeper  of 
Brodick  Castle.  In  1661  it  was  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  same  family.  In  1685  it 


30  ARRAN 

passed  to  the  Montgomeries  of  Skelmorlie, 
and  early  in  the  next  century  passed  to  the 
Hamiltons. 

The  chapel  of  St.  Bride,  mentioned  by 
Scott  as  possessing  a  convent,  where  dwelt 
Isabel  and  the  Maid  of  Lome,  stood  on 
the  beach,  but  not  a  trace  now  remains  to 
show  the  spot. 


THE   GEOLOGY    OF    ARRAN 

Arran  has  been  said  to  be  in  itself  an  epi- 
tome of  geology,  and  in  that  respect  it  is 
unique.  Briefly,  the  Devonian  sandstone  ex- 
tends from  the  east  to  some  five  miles  inland, 
and  from  Brodick  takes  a  turn  to  the  south- 
west. Trap-rock  and  carboniferous  strata 
occur  in  the  west  and  centre  of  the  island. 
The  central  granite  portion  includes  the  great 
hills  of  Goatfell,  Cir  Mhor  and  Casteal  Abhail. 
On  the  north-east  and  south  the  granite  is 
joined  by  mica  slate ;  on  the  south-east  and 
north  by  lower  Silurian  rocks,  which  are  met 
on  the  east  and  south  by  Devonian  sandstone, 
while  lias  and  oolite  lie  above  the  mica  slate. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CAVES  OF  ARRAN 

FINGAL'S  CAVE 

CLOSE  to  the  great  fort  at  Drumadoon  is  the 
famous  cave  at  the  base  of  the  hill  known  as 
Tor  an  Righ,  or  King's  Hill,  which  the  sea 
has  worn  out  of  the  sandstone.  The  roof 
is  arched,  and  the  place  lofty  and  spacious, 
and  on  the  walls  are  primitive  drawings  of 
dogs  and  horses  engaged  in  the  chase,  prob- 
ably dating  from  prehistoric  times,  and, 
according  to  tradition,  intended  to  represent 
Fion.  In  this  cave  also  Bruce  and  his  fol- 
lowers found  shelter  during  their  wanderings 
in  the  island,  and  there  are  the  "  King's  kit- 
chen," stable,  and  larder. 

THE    PREACHING    CAVE    AT    KILPATRICK 

Enough  of  fame  attaches  to  the  great  cave  at 
Drumadoon,  for  has  it  not  sheltered  both  the 


32  ARRAN 

gods  in  the  person  of  Fion  and  his  friends, 
and  kings  in  the  person  of  Bruce  ?  Has  it 
not  also  been  of  service  to  common  humanity 
in  sheltering  many  a  keg  of  good  spirits, 
many  a  bale  of  good  silk,  many  a  pound  of 
fragrant  tobacco  ?  Has  it  not  seen  more  than 
one  tussle  between  the  men  of  the  Revenue 
cutters  which  sailed  up  and  down  watching 
the  audacious  smugglers  of  Arran  and 
Kintyre  ?  Was  not  a  daring  member  of  the 
Clan  Innain  shot  somewhere  in  these  parts  in 
an  encounter  of  the  kind  ?  So  Drumadoon, 
having  served  all  classes,  gods,  kings,  lords, 
and  commons,  need  not  usurp  the  glory  of 
the  cave  in  which  another  member  of  the 
Clan  MacKinnon  made  his  mark  as  one  of 
the  many  noted  preachers  of  Arran.  In  this 
cave  Mr.  Peter  Craig,  a  man  greatly  liked 
for  his  ability  and  his  geniality,  held  a  school 
for  many  years  which  rivalled  that  of  the 
village  schoolmaster,  and  turned  out  many 
good  scholars,  who  afterwards  filled  import- 
ant positions  in  Glasgow  and  other  towns. 

The  Preaching  Cave  was  also  sometimes 
used    for     the     ordinary    Sunday    services. 


THE  CAVES  OF  ARRAN  33 

Largest  of  all  the  Arran  caves  is  that  known 
as  the  Monster  Cave  at  Bennan  Head,  which 
has  also  been  used  for  religious  services  at 
different  times.  Many  ancient  stone  imple- 
ments and  other  remains  of  primitive  life 
have  been  found  amongst  the  rubbish  on  the 
floor  of  this  place. 

The  early  Scottish  missionaries  made  use 
of  many  of  the  caves  of  the  West  Highlands 
as  dwelling-places,  and  it  has  been  suggested 
by  Mr.  Lyteill  that  the  word  "Piper's"  cave  so 
often  applied  to  them  is  really  the  word  Pypar, 
a  priest.  The  dog  and  piper  story  which  we 
have  all  heard  would  thus  probably  have 
arisen  from  the  supposition  that  the  word 
referred  to  the  ordinary  profane  piper. 


THE  WONDROUS    BAUL    OF    SAINT    MULUY 

Martin,  in  his  Western  Islands,  published  in 
1703,  gives  a  description  of  the  famous  heal- 
ing-stone which  is  still  preserved  by  the  Craw- 
ford family.  Martin  says  :  "I  had  like  to  have 
forgot  a  valuable  curiosity  in  this  isle,  which 
they  call  '  Baul  muluy,'  i.e.  Molingus,  his 
3 


34  ARRAN 

Stone  Globe.  This  saint  was  Chaplain  to 
MackDonald  of  the  Isles  ;  his  name  is  cele- 
brated here  on  account  of  this  Globe,  so  much 
esteemed  by  the  inhabitants.  This  stone,  for 
its  intrinsic  value,  has  been  carefully  trans- 
mitted to  posterity  for  several  ages.  It  is  a 
green  stone,  much  like  a  globe  in  figure,  about 
the  bigness  of  a  goose  egg.  The  virtues  of 
it  is  to  remove  stitches  from  the  sides  of  sick 
persons,  by  laying  it  close  to  the  place  affected, 
and  if  the  patient  does  not  outlive  the  dis- 
temper they  say  the  stone  moves  out  of  the 
bed  of  its  own  accord,  and  e  contra.  The  natives 
use  this  stone  for  swearing  decisive  oaths  upon 
it.  They  ascribe  another  extraordinary  virtue 
to  it,  and  'tis  this — the  credulous  vulgar  firmly 
believe  that  if  this  stone  is  cast  among  the 
front  of  an  enemy  they  will  all  run  away,  and 
that  as  often  as  the  enemy  rallies,  if  this  stone 
is  cast  among  them,  they  will  lose  courage  and 
retire. 

"  They  say  that  MackDonald  of  the  Isles 
carried  this  stone  about  him,  and  that  victory 
was  always  on  his  side  when  he  threw  it 
among  the  enemy.  The  custody  of  this  globe 


THE  CAVES  OF  ARRAN  35 

is  the  peculiar  privilege  of  a  little  family  called 
Clan  Chattons,  alias  Mackintosh.  They  were 
ancient  followers  of  Mack  Donald  of  the  Isles. 
This  stone  is  now  in  the  custody  of  Margaret 
Miller,  alias  Mackintosh.  She  lives  at  Bell- 
mianich,  and  preserves  the  globe  with  abund- 
ance of  care.  It  is  wrapped  in  a  fair  linen 
cloath,  and  about  that  there  is  a  piece  of 
woollen  cloath,  and  she  keeps  it  still  locked  up 
in  her  chest,  when  it  is  not  given  out  to  exert 
its  qualities." 

One  has  to  be  careful  of  these  things,  and 
it  is  well  to  note  that  the  ball  has  one  serious 
disadvantage,  which  those  who  may  wish  to 
avail  themselves  of  its  healing  qualities 
should  keep  in  remembrance,  else  they  might 
be  regarded  as  guilty  of  manslaughter  or 
worse.  It  is  that,  when  the  person  who  carries 
the  globe  enters  the  house  of  the  sick  person, 
the  first  living  thing  that  crosses  the  line  of 
his  path  must  die,  whether  it  be  as  small  as  a 
butterfly  or  as  large  as  the  ploughman  and 
four  horses  who,  happening  to  get  into  the 
same  latitude,  fell  down  dead  in  Glen  Scorra 
some  time  since. 


36  ARRAN 

It  is  a  little  discouraging  to  know  that  the 
globe  is  somewhat  damaged  through  misad- 
venture, showing  clearly  that  the  physician 
had  not  power  to  heal  itself. 

As  to  its  quality  in  aiding  swearing  it  is  also 
a  little  out  of  date,  and  we  doubt  a  week  in 
Cowcaddens,  the  Candlerigs,  or  in  White- 
chapel  would  fit  one  out  with  a  fuller  vocab- 
ulary than  even  Baul  Muluy. 


PART    III 

ARRAN   IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 


CHAPTER  VII 

THAT   I   WERE   THERE!* 

ROOFLESS  the  walls  and  all  around  is  dreary, 

Cold  the  ingle-side  and  bare, 
Men  called  it  home,  'tis  now  the  wild  bird's  eyrie, 

Yet  I  would  that  I  were  there ! 

Just  to  feel  the  wild  wet  breezes  swirling 

O'er  the  water  and  the  whin, 
To  see  the  peat-reek  o'er  the  cottage  curling 

And  the  hairst  folk  winning  in. 

To  see  the  glens  in  Autumn's  colours  tender, 

And  the  black  Ben's  misty  wreath, 
The  birk  and  the  breckan's  dying  splendour, 

And  the  roaring  linn  beneath. 

To  see  the  foam  from  the  white  beach  flying 
And  the  boats  leap  through  the  waves, 

And  the  ring  of  golden  sea-tang  lying 
Strayed  from  Atlantic's  caves. 

To  hear  again  the  beach-nuts  falling,  falling, 

When  the  plantin's  winning  bare, 
To  hear  again  the  paitricks  calling,  calling, 

Oh,  would  that  I  were  there ! 

M'K.  M'B. 

*  With  acknowledgments  to  "  The  Spectator}'1 

39 


40  ARRAN 

ARRAN  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 
THE   OLD    RUNRIG    SYSTEM 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Arran  was  in  much  the  same  condition  as  the 
rest  of  the  Highlands:  the  men  tilled  the  lands 
of  their  forefathers  and  ate  the  crops  they 
grew.  They  fished  and  shot  game  without 
hindrance,*  and  the  chiefs  were  more  anxious 
that  there  should  exist  on  the  land  a  hardy 
race  of  strong  men  who  could  wield  a  clay- 
more than  to  know  what  he  received  in  bolls 
of  meal  from  the  "kindly  tenants"  of  the 
lordship.  The  whole  idea  of  Highland  life 
was  in  most  "districts  still  patriarchal  :  the 
Highland  chief  had  not  developed  into  the 
modern  landlord. 

In  places  like  Arran,  Bute,  and  Kintyre, 
there  was  seldom  a  scarcity  of  food,  and  the 
men  of  these  parts  possessed  exceptional 
hardihood.  In  Arran  and  Kintyre  especially, 
the  old  stories  of  feats  of  strength  were  plenti- 
ful twenty  years  ago.  Mr.  Neil  Munro  has 

*  See  the   present  writer's  paper   on    The  Rights  of  the 
Individual  under  the  Clan  System. 


OLD  BRIDGE  :  NORTH  GLEN  SENNOX 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        41 

given  us  an  interesting,  and  I  think  well-con- 
sidered, picture  of  the  mainland  of  Argyll 
fifty  to  seventy  years  earlier  in  his  John 
Splendid,  showing  that  the  conditions  of  life 
as  regards  food  were  eminently  suitable  for 
the  rearing  of  strong  men  and  women.  It  is 
true  that  some  of  the  Highland  lairds,  who 
held  by  the  charter  rather  than  by  the  sword, 
attempted  to  maintain  a  semi-feudal  state  of 
things,  and  had  become  aggressive,  but  they 
were  the  exception,  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
even  the  occasional  tyranny  of  these  men  was 
better  than  the  purely  commercial  relations 
between  rich  and  poor,  chief  and  clansman, 
which  came  into  existence  after  the  long 
absence  of  the  attainted  chiefs  who  took  part 
in  the  Rising  of  1745.  Recently  published 
letters  show  the  intimate  relations  which 
existed  in  old  times  between  the  rich  and 
poor,  the  chief  and  his  clansmen,  and  the  great 
difference  that  followed  upon  the  return  of  the 
chiefs. 

The  late  Mr.  Patrick  Murray  thus  de- 
scribes the  rise  in  the  value  of  land  which 
was  then  taking  place  in  Scotland  and 


42  ARRAN 

England,  due  to  the  growth  of  industry  and 
other  causes : — 

"  The  country  assumed  a  settled  condition 
to  which  it  had  long  been  strange.  The  first 
of  our  countrymen  began  to  return  from  the 
Indies  with  fortunes  acquired  in  our  posses- 
sions there — new  life  was  given  to  industry 
and  enterprise  of  every  kind,  and  the  trade  of 
Glasgow  and  the  country  generally  made  a 
fresh  and  vigorous  start.  As  a  consequence 
of  all  this  the  price  of  land  rose  considerably 
from  the  low  level  at  which  it  had  long  stood, 
and  landlords  in  different  parts  of  Scotland 
took  to  farming  on  new  and  improved 
methods.  Although  it  may  seem  strange 
now,  these  were  introduced  from  England, 
and  English  servants  and  implements  of 
husbandry  were  brought  to  Scotland  for  this 
purpose.  Lord  Eglinton  was  one  of  the  first 
in  this  part  of  the  country  to  set  the  example 
on  a  large  scale,  and  his  English  servants 
introduced  drill  husbandry  and  the  culture  of 
turnips  into  Ayrshire.  At  the  peace  of  1763 
large  fortunes  made  during  the  war  with  great 
rapidity  were  brought  home  and  invested  in 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        43 

land,  and  money  diffused  itself  amongst  all 
classes.  The  price  of  corn  rose  at  least  one- 
third.  The  price  of  cattle,  which  had  almost 
doubled  in  the  previous  thirty  years,  rose  in 
1766  still  higher.  Farming  and  improve- 
ments became  the  fashion,  and  every  country 
gentleman  took  to  them  on  a  greater  or  less 
scale. 

"  The  farms  were  let  on  leases  of  nineteen 
years'  duration,  and  at  their  entry  to  them  the 
tenants  had  paid  a  grassum,  which  was  the 
last  of  this  custom  in  Arran.  These  leases 
began  to  expire  in  1766,  the  greater  part  of 
them  falling  out  in  1772.  In  view  of  this,  the 
tutors  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  was  then 
a  minor,  determined  to  set  about  the  improve- 
ment of  the  island,  and  appointed  Mr.  John 
Burrell,  their  factor  at  Kinneil,  to  reset  the 
tacks  and  to  advise  the  measures  to  be  adopted 
for  improvement,  and  to  direct  the  operations 
resolved  on." 

JOHN    BURRELL 

This  man  played  an  important  part  in  the 
later  history  of  Arran.  He  was,  judging  by 


44  ARRAN 

name,  probably  English  or  of  English  origin. 
He  was  a  perfect  stranger,  at  any  rate,  and 
there  is  no  one  like  a  stranger  for  the  work 
if  you  want  the  old  landmarks  removed,  for 
a  stranger  knows  no  traditions,  feels  no  senti- 
mental scruples.  This  the  Highland  land- 
lords realised  perfectly  a  little  later  when  they 
wished  to  evict  the  old  tillers  of  the  soil  to 
make  room  for  sheep  or  deer. 

Mr.  Murray  says  :  "In  carrying  out  his 
commission  Mr.  Burrell  visited  Arran  from 
1766  to  1782,  at  least  nine  times,  for  periods 
ranging  from  one  to  four  months.  He  made 
what  he  calls  a  '  strict  survey '  of  every  farm, 
and  reported  fully  his  whole  doings  in  the 
island. 

HIS    SCHEME    OF    IMPROVEMENT 

"  Of  all  his  schemes,  the  most  important  was 
the  making  of  enclosures,  on  which  work  large 
sums  were  spent  by  the  proprietor  on  his 
recommendation.  An  overseer  and  workmen 
were  brought  from  the  mainland  to  make  the 
dikes  on  several  farms  as  a  sample  of  what 
was  wanted,  and  afterwards  the  tenants  them- 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        45 

selves  were  encouraged  to  do  the  work. 
Forty  spades  were  ordered  from  Ayrshire  to 
begin  with,  but  Arran  smiths  were  allowed 
to  try  their  hands  on  more.  The  old  turf 
dykes  which  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  island, 
some  of  them  outside  the  limits  of  the  arable 
land,  are  part  of  those  laid  out  by  Mr.  Burrell 
at  this  time.  Those  at  Drumadoon  and  at 
Torbeg  and  Tormore  were  some  of  the  first 
made,  and  also  those  at  Blairbeg,  but  in  re- 
setting the  tacks  a  certain  amount  was  stipu- 
lated to  be  done  on  every  farm  at  the 
proprietor's  expense.  He  opened  the  lime 
quarry  in  the  Clachan  Glen,  and  also  the 
slate  quarry  at  Lochranza.  He  made  a 
trial  for  coal  at  the  Cock  Farm,  and  put  down 
a  bore  at  Clauchlands.  He  inveighed  against 
the  barbarous  system  of  runrig  and  rundale 
which  the  tenantry  of  the  Island  of  Arran 
were  so  fond  of.  He  lamented  the  extrava- 
gant number  of  horses  kept  by  the  tenants, 
and  ordered  that  a  plough  and  oxen  should 
be  sent  to  the  island,  and  a  premium  given  to 
the  tenant  who  first  ploughed  his  land  with 
oxen.  In  short,  to  quote  his  own  words — 


46  ARRAN 

4  Many  a  serious  thought  and  contemplation 
the  memorialist  has  bestowed  upon  the  culti- 
vation and  improvement  of  this  island  which 
had  the  effect  to  produce  many  a  different 
idea.'" 

The  older  families  had  exceptional  rights, 
many  of  them  the  remains  of  their  original 
proprietorship  or  of  privileges  granted  long  ago 
to  their  ancestors.  Mr.  Burrell  introduced 
new  men  from  Argyll  and  the  low  country, 
and  gave  them  the  same  rights  and  privileges, 
or  rather  restricted  the  old  rights  to  the  same 
level  as  those  granted  to  the  new-comers, 
naturally  causing  much  heartburning  and  dis- 
content amongst  the  old  clans  of  the  island. 

THE   GREAT   REVOLUTION 

"  At  that  time,"  Mr.  Murray  says,  "  farms  in 
the  island  were  arranged  so  that  the  whole 
were  out  of  lease  at  one  time  in  the  year 
1 776.  This  was  done  to  admit  of  rectification 
of  marches  and  a  better  division  of  the  farms 
and  of  the  interior  or  hill  grazings.  .  .  .  This, 
we  may  be  sure,  was  a  serious  enough  business 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        47 

for  both  parties,  but  it  did  not  altogether  take 
the  heart  out  of  the  tenants." 

Of  course  the  greatest  revolution  Mr. 
Burrell  effected  was  in  the  conversion  of 
the  old  runrig  farms  into  lots  or  separate  hold- 
ings. By  the  runrig  system  the  farm  was 
cultivated  in  strips  by  four  to  ten  or  more 
tenants,  generally  of  the  same  family.  The 
strips  changed  hands  every  two  years.  The 
plan  was  interesting,  and  essentially  com- 
munistic in  character.  Mr.  Burrell  viewed 
it  with  horror,  though  it  really  stood  upon  a 
higher  moral  basis  than  the  competitive  method 
which  followed.  Nor  was  there  anything 
inherently  bad  in  it  commercially,  or  need 
why  it  should  fail,  provided  the  farm  and  the 
individual  strips  were  large  enough  to  support 
the  men  who  tilled  them. 

So  far  from  reflecting  upon  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  men  who  adopted  it,  as  Mr. 
Burrell  and  Mr.  Murray  thought  it  did,  the 
runrig  system  was  based  on  a  principle  on 
which  we  are  acting  little  by  little  to-day — 
the  principle  of  real  co-operation.  Loudon 
says  of  it :  "  Absurd  as  the  common  field 


48  ARRAN 

system  is  at  this  day,  it  was  admirably  suited 
to  the  circumstances  in  which  it  originated, 
the  plan  having  been  conceived  in  wisdom, 
and  executed  with  extraordinary  accuracy." 

A  kind  of  administrative  committee,  which 
was  formed  apparently  by  Mr.  Burrell  himself 
in  1 7  70,  included  the  following  members :  John 
Burrell,  George  Couper,  William  MacGregor, 
Patrick  Hamilton,  John  Hamilton,  Gershom 
Stewart  (minister  of  Kilbride),  Duncan  Mac- 
Bride,  John  Pette,  John  Fullarton,  Gavin 
Fullarton,  John  Hamilton,  Thomas  Brown, 
William  Ogg,  Hector  MacAllister,  Alexander 
MacGregor,  John  MacCook,  and  Adam 
Fullarton.  Of  these  at  least  four  were  directly 
or  indirectly  employed  by  the  Arran  estate 
manager,  while  ten  of  the  whole  number 
were  dependent  on  the  Hamilton  interest,  and 
bound  to  support  Mr.  Burrell's  measures  ;  so 
that  this  committee  cannot  be  taken  as  a 
popularly  representative  one  for  the  whole 
island,  anything  of  the  nature  of  popular 
government  being  as  yet  unknown. 

The  chief  matter  discussed  was  the  question 
of  a  scheme  for  a  service  of  packet  boats  run- 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   49 

ning  between  the  island  and  Saltcoats.    Other 
matters  decided  by  the  committee  were — 

Rogue  and  road  money,  and  statute  labour  on  the  roads. 

The  suming  and  rouming  of  the  island,  which  was  im- 
mediately carried  into  execution. 

Tenants  to  keep  herds  and  to  fold  their  cattle  every  night, 
according  to  Act  of  Parliament. 

Multures  to  be  commuted  for  a  fixed  payment  per  boll 
meal  for  grinding. 

Sheep  to  be  marked,  and  no  cattle  or  sheep  to  be  killed 
without  calling  together  a  jury  of  the  three  nearest  neigh- 
bours. 

All  weights  and  measures  to  be  taken  to  the  castle,  and 
compared  with  Ayr  weights  and  measures. 

With  a  view  to  encouraging  improvements 
in  husbandry  in  1776,  premiums  were  offered 
to  the  tenants  as  follows  : — 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  produce  the  best  three-year-old 
humbled  bull  of  his  own  property,  not  under  the  value  of 
£10  stg.— 5  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  produce  the  best  two-year-old  tup 
of  Bakewell  and  Chaplin  kind — full  blood — not  under  the 
value  of  £5  stg. — 2^  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  produce  the  best  three-year-old 
entire  horse,  not  under  the  value  of  £i 5  stg.,  and  not  above  1 5 
hands  high — 7^  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  have  the  best  field  of  turnips,  not 
under  3  acres,  sown  broad- cast  after  a  summer  fallow  by 
3  ploughings,  and  manured — 6  guineas.  And  to  him  who 
shall  have  the  best  field  not  under  3  acres,  in  drills  7\  feet 
distance,  horsehoed  no  less  than  3  times,  and  the  ground 
well  manured — 5  guineas. 
4 


5o  ARRAN 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  have  the  best  field  of  cabbages, 
not  less  than  2  acres,  well  prepared,  planted  at  4  feet  distance 
'twixt  rows,  and  i£  feet  distance  in  the  rows,  which  will  take 
about  20,000  plants — to  be  three  times  horsehoed  (which, 
at  4  Ibs.  a  plant,  will  fatten  in  9  weeks  16  head  of  cattle, 
which  should  sell  at  ,£3  advance,  or  ^24  an  acre) — shall  have 
6  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  have  the  first  10  acres  enclosure 
finished  in  terms  of  the  articles — 5  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  have  the  greatest  quantity  and 
best  quality  of  wheat  upon  enclosed  ground,  and  after  a 
thorough  summer  fallow  of  5  furrows,  sufficiently  manured, 
and  no  less  than  2  acres — 2  guineas. 

To  the  tenant  who  shall  have  the  greatest  quantity  of 
clover  and  rye-grass  hay  from  at  least  2  acres,  sown  with 
barley  or  wheat,  after  summer  fallow,  of  5  furrows,  and  pro- 
perly manured,  and  not  less  than  100  stones  an  acre,  and 
upon  enclosed  ground — 2  guineas. 

Amongst  the  prize-winners  in  the  two  years 
following  were  Angus  MacKillop,  Alexander 
Thomson,  Patrick  Crawford,  Robert  Shaw, 
John  Currie,  and  Alexander  MacKinnon. 

The  Duke  also  obtained  the  services  of  an 
experienced  fisherman,  one  Andrew  Wilson, 
to  teach  the  art  of  line  fishing  to  any  of  the 
islanders  who  applied  to  him. 


SMUGGLING    IN    ARRAN 

As  on  other  parts  of  the  coast,  at  this  time  a 
good  deal  of  money  was  made  by  the  natives 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        51 

out  of  smuggling — possibly  more  than  was  in 
many  cases  made  out  of  their  crofts.  Mr. 
Murray  says  :  "No  notice  of  Arran  at  this 
time  is  possible  without  a  reference  to  the 
making  and  smuggling  of  the  famous  '  Arran 
water.'  In  spite  of  gaugers,  excise  officers, 
and  frequent  seizures  of  malt  and  whisky,  it 
was  persevered  in.  As  the  Arran  people  are 
pre-eminently  law-abiding,  I  can  only  account 
for  this  peculiarity  on  the  supposition  that 
the  product  of  their  stills  was  so  very  good 
that  they  could  not  find  it  in  their  hearts  to 
believe  that  any  law  could  make  the  making 
of  it  bad.  I  find  a  list  of  32  stills  in  Arran  in 
1784,  of  which  23  were  in  the  south  end.  In 
that  year  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  for 
the  licensing  of  small  stills  in  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland,  by  which  proprietors  were  made 
liable,  along  with  their  tenants,  for  the  heavy 
fines  imposed  in  case  of  the  latter  being  con- 
victed of  illicit  distillation.  After  the  passing 
of  the  Act  26  stills  were  collected  and  carried  to 
the  Castle.  In  1797,  when  illicit  distillation 
would  appear  to  have  been  at  its  height,  a 
letter  from  Arran  describes  whisky  as  a  perfect 


52  ARRAN 

drug  in  the  market — it  being  supposed  there 
were  no  less  than  50  stills  at  the  south  end  of 
the  island.  At  that  time  the  whole  annual 
produce  of  here  (from  500  to  2000  quarters), 
would  appear  to  have  been  used  in  the  Island 
for  distilling.  It  suffered  no  decrease  until, 
in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton  threatened  to  dis- 
possess any  tenant  convicted  of  illicit  distilla- 
tion, and  from  that  time  it  appears  to  have 
decreased,  and  then  disappeared  entirely.  In 
the  malt  kiln,  the  ruins  of  which  are  still  stand- 
ing in  the  grounds  of  the  Whitehouse,  there  was 
a  licensed  still  of  the  capacity  of  forty  gallons, 
from  which,  from  December  1793  to  Novem- 
ber 1794,  whisky  was  sold  to  the  amount  of 
^500  at  2s.  per  Scotch  pint,  or  45.  per  gallon." 
Every  one,  including  the  Duke  and  Mr. 
Burrell,  was  shocked  at  the  smuggling,  and 
for  it  the  islanders  were  roundly  abused  by 
the  ministers. 

FAMOUS    ARRAN    PREACHERS 

It  must  not  be  supposed  from  this,  however, 
that  Arran  was  a  drunken  island.    Mr.  Pater- 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        53 

son,  writing  in  1830,  says  emphatically  that 
it  was  not  so,  and  Arran  was  prolific  in 
preachers.  The  Rev.  J.  Kennedy  Cameron 
says  in  his  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  John  Mac- 
A  Ulster :  "  Smuggling  was  common  in 
Arran  at  that  time,  and  John  MacAlister 
took  his  share  in  smuggling  adventures 
like  the  rest.  But  a  religious  revival 
arose  in  Kilmorie,  under  the  preaching  of  the 
parish  minister,  the  Rev.  Neil  MacBride,  and 
among  the  awakened  people  were  Angus 
MacMillan,  Finlay  and  Archibald  Cook, 
Peter  Davidson,  Archibald  Nicol,  and  John 
MacAlister — men  who  afterwards  attained  a 
great  deal  of  religious  influence  throughout 
the  Highlands." 

And  of  course  Arran  was  not  the  only 
place  in  which  there  was  smuggling.  It  was 
carried  on  also  in  Kintyre  and  Galloway,  and 
on  every  other  coast  of  Scotland,  including  Mr. 
Burrell's  own  neighbourhood  of  the  Forth  ! 
In  the  Essex  district,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  it  went  on  to  an  enormous  extent, 
the  houses  of  the  wealthy,  and  even  the 
very  churches,  being  used  as  storehouses  in 


54  ARRAN 

which  to  hide  spirits  and  other  smuggled 
articles. 

So  that,  though  we  can  appreciate  the 
valuable  picture  Mr.  Burrell's  diary  gives  us 
of  the  Arran  of  his  day,  we  must  remember 
that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  view  things 
from  the  native's  point  of  view.  He  supplies 
us  with  the  facts,  but  we  must  ourselves  put 
in  the  pinches  of  salt  if  we  would  get  at  the 
truth,  without  doing  injustice  to  the  men  of 
our  own  hearths  who  lived  through  that  time 
of  revolution  and  bitter  disillusionment  in 
Arran  and  the  Highlands  generally. 

For  example,  Mr.  Burrell  shows  that  hus- 
bandry was  old-fashioned  and  poor,  that  there 
were  no  proper  roads  in  the  modern  sense, 
that  the  bridges  were  of  wood,  the  connection 
with  the  mainland  irregular,  letters  being 
delivered  haphazard  as  opportunity  offered. 
That  the  boat  fare  to  Ayr  was  153.,  that  the 
boats  were  badly  constructed  and  deficient  in 
the  matter  of  tackle,  and  that  the  whole  of 
the  island,  save  the  park  of  Brodick  Castle, 
was  unenclosed. 

But  of  course  we   must  not  assume   that 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        55 

Arran  was  the  only  place  without  roads,  -or  was 
necessarily  behind  very  many,  if  not  most, 
other  districts  of  England  and  Scotland. 

We  are  told  that  the  first  manure  ever  ap- 
plied to  land  in  Ayrshire  was  in  1758  and 
1760.  In  Essex  we  read  of  a  road  having 
been  ploughed  with  the  object  of  levelling  the 
ruts;  and  that  in  1768  "no  road  ever  equalled 
that  from  Billericay  to  the  King's  Head  at 
Tilbury.  It  is  for  nearly  twelve  miles  so 
narrow  that  a  mouse  cannot  pass  by  any  car- 
riage. .  .  .  The  ruts  are  of  an  incredible  depth 
.  .  .  and  I  must  not  forget  the  eternally 
meeting  with  chalk-waggons,  themselves  fre- 
quently stuck  fast,  till  a  collection  of  them  are 
in  the  same  situation,  and  twenty  or  thirty 
horses  may  be  tacked  to  each  to  draw  them 
out  one  by  one." 

Nor  were  the  manners  of  the  people  all  that 
could  be  desired,  even  in  this  enlightened 
county  so  near  London.  "  The  men  were 
notoriously  drunken,  and  the  clergy  ignorant, 
intemperate,  and  neglectful.  It  is  said  that  the 
farmers  who  met  at  a  certain  Rochford  hos- 
telry used  to  set  a  hen  on  their  arrival,  and 


56  ARRAN 

would  continue  their  drinking  bout  until  the 
chickens  were  hatched."* 

Very  different  is  the  description  of  the 
Arran  people  given  by  Pennant  and  by 
Paterson,  a  later  factor  of  the  island,  who 
says :  "In  moral  character  the  people  of 
Arran  .  .  .  are  hospitable  amongst  themselves 
and  to  strangers.  They  are  more  confiding 
in  each  other  than  is  altogether  prudent. 
The  money  and  other  property  of  the  more 
fortunate  among  them  are  freely  lent  to  those 
in  need,  often  when  there  is  but  a  slight  pro- 
spect of  repayment.  To  their  aged  and 
infirm  relations  they  are  generally  kind  and 
dutiful,  and  scarcely  any  are  ever  allowed  to 
beg  their  bread.  .  .  .  The  people  of  Arran 
may  justly  be  described  as  a  religious  com- 
munity ...  so  far  as  recollected,  there  is  not 
a  single  native  who  can  with  justice  be  called 
a  drunkard." 

It  would  have  been  well  if  those  later 
writers  upon  Arran,  like  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mac- 
Arthur,  who  talk  of  the  introduction  amongst 
its  people  of  "  the  more  practical  and  enlight- 

*  Rambles  round  Southend,  by  the  present  writer. 


CORN  CUTTING 

Front  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  IVINGATE,  R.S.A. 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        57 

ened  views  of  their  lowland  neighbours," 
had  looked  round  to  see  what  their  lowland 
and  English  neighbours  actually  did  before 
making  their  unkind  reflections. 


THE   ARRAN    EVICTIONS 

Mr.  Burrell  was  a  man  of  exceptional 
ability,  and  introduced  many  valuable  agri- 
cultural reforms,  but  his  hand  was  undoubtedly 
against  the  natives,  and  the  inevitable  result  of 
the  "  lotting  "  of  the  island  into  large  farms 
and  the  restriction  of  the  hill  grazings,  was  that 
wholesale  evictions  followed  about  the  year 
1812  to  1815.  Again,  about  the  year  1821, 
it  is  stated  that  500  persons  were  sent  away 
chiefly  from  the  Sannox  district.  About 
half  the  passage  money  was  paid  by  the 
Duke,  who  also  obtained  for  them  grants  of 
land  from  Government  amounting  to  100 
acres  per  family.  Many  of  the  people 
settled  in  lower  Canada  and  Chaleur  Bay.  The 
Rev.  Alexander  MacBride  states  in  his  New 
Statistical  Account  of  Kilmory,  that  many  of 
the  ejected  families  emigrated  to  North 


58  ARRAN 

America  but  by  far  the  greater  number 
removed  to  Ayrshire  towns. 

But  long  prior  to  this,  in  1770,  five  years 
after  Mr.  Burrell's  advent,  the  people  were 
leaving  the  old  home  which  was  undergoing 
so  radical  an  alteration.  In  that  year 
Burrell  considers  that  it  was  dangerous  to 
suspend  the  "  Baron"  Court  for  six  months, 
"finding  that  so  many  people  intending  for 
America,  to  leave  the  place  at  the  time 
without  a  judge  would  be  leaving  it  in  the 
power  of  these  emigrants  to  rob  both  his 
grace  and  their  neighbours." 

The  suggestion  that  Highlanders  would 
at  that  time  rob  their  own  unfortunate  kins- 
folk, when  themselves  broken-hearted  at  the 
prospect  of  leaving  all  they  knew  and  loved, 
seems  wanton  and  without  justification  in  fact 
or  precedent.  It  is  fortunately  clear  from  his 
own  arrangement  made  previously,  to  defer 
the  sitting  of  the  Baron  Court  for  six  months 
(which  he  thus  wished  to  alter),  that  the  men 
of  Arran  could  not  have  been  other  than  the 
quiet,  law-abiding  folk  visitors  find  them 
to-day.  Imagine  us  in  1910  deferring  the 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        59 

sittings  of  a  court  for  six  months  in  a  com- 
munity of  six  thousand  persons  ! 

Of  course  bitter  feelings  and  keen  opposi- 
tion were  aroused  by  the  revolutionary 
changes,  just  as  in  the  years  following  the 
introduction  of  the  black-faced  sheep  (from 
about  1790)  and  the  consequent  clearing 
of  the  Sannox  district,  we  are  told  by  an- 
other able  and  not  unkindly  factor  of  the 
estate,  John  Paterson,  that  the  people  "opposed 
the  changes  in  every  way  short  of  physical 
resistance."  It  is  made  clear  in  the  "  Diary  " 
that  Burrell's  stern  and  iconoclastic  measures 
had  roused  the  people  to  hatred  and  despair, 
and  he  complains  of  them  plotting  against 
the  Duke. 

Whatever  else  they  accomplished,  Mr. 
Burrell's  efforts  do  not  seem  to  have  im- 
proved the  comfort  of  the  people,  for  we  are 
told  that  about  1810  the  condition  of  all 
save  the  few  big  tacksmen  was  miserable, 
that  their  houses  were  the  meanest  hovels, 
while  they  were  clad  in  the  coarsest  garments 
of  home  manufacture. 

It   seems  that,  as  happened  with  the  in- 


60  ARRAN 

troduction  of  purely  commercial  methods  into 
England,  the  people  were  robbed  of  many 
privileges  and  perquisites  which  they  had  long 
regarded  as  their  own.  Their  condition  thus 
became  worse  than  it  was  in  1766,  when 
the  changes  commenced,  though  it  is  pre- 
tended by  Mr.  MacArthur  and  others  that  in 
the  Highlands  all  good  things  followed  the 
introduction  of  modern  methods  after  the 
Forty-five,  when  strangers  of  Mr.  Burrell's 
type  were  set  to  work  to  "  reform  "  the  High- 
lands by  reducing  men  and  things  therein  to 
what  Mr.  Cunningham  Graham  would  call 
their  "  lowest  common  multiple  " — the  prin- 
ciple of  commercialism.  In  this  work  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  many  of  the  old  ministers  un- 
consciously lent  a  hand,  by  their  efforts  to 
beat  the  harmless  and  already  well-cudgelled 
natives  into  "reform."  For  in  their  ardour 
they  were  unable  to  discriminate  between 
those  customs  that  lent  gaiety  and  bright- 
ness to  Highland  life,  and  were  in  them- 
selves a  valuable  possession  which  made 
for  refinement,  and  those  which  were  really 
harmful. 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        61 
WHAT    PENNANT    SAW 

Pennant,  an  Englishman,  writing  in  1776, 
or  just  ten  years  after  Mr.  Burrell  was  sent  to 
modernise  Arran,  says  :  "  The  men  (of  Arran) 
are  strong,  tall,  and  well  made  ...  all  speak 
the  Erse  language.  Their  diet  is  chiefly  pota- 
toes and  meal,  and  during  winter  some  dried 
mutton  or  goat  is  added  to  their  hard  fare. 
A  deep  dejection  appears  in  general  through 
the  countenances  of  all :  no  time  can  be  spared 
for  amusement  of  any  kind,  the  whole  being 
given  for  procuring  the  means  of  paying  their 
rent,  of  laying  in  their  fuel,  or  getting  in  a 
scanty  pittance  of  meat  and  clothing."  Pennant, 
in  1771,  again  points  out  that  the  farms  were 
"  set  by  roup  or  auction,  and  advanced  by  un- 
natural force  to  above  double  the  old  rent." 
He  says  further  that  "the  late  rents  were  scarce 
^1200  a  year  ;  the  expected  rents  £3000." 

The  actual  rent-roll  of  the  island  in  the  year 
1778  was  roundly,  according  to  Mr.  Burrell's 
own  figures,  ^5550,  or  with  some  additions 
^5880. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  how  greatly  his 


62  ARRAN 

efforts  had  improved  his  employer's  property, 
and  had  stimulated  the  rent-roll,  while  they 
had  ruined  and  impoverished  the  lives  of 
the  people. 

As  a  contrast  to  the  description  of  the  Arran 
islanders  by  Pennant  above  quoted,  may  be 
taken  his  description  of  the  songs,  the  gaiety, 
the  pleasant  lore,  and  the  colour  generally  by 
which  life  in  the  Highlands  had  been  every- 
where characterised.  Describing  the  Island  of 
Skye  in  the  same  year  he  says  :  "  They  sing  in 
the  same  manner  when  they  are  cutting  down 
the  corn,  when  thirty  or  forty  join  in  chorus, 
keeping  time  to  the  sound  of  a  bagpipe,  as  the 
Grecian  lasses  were  wont  to  do  to  that  of  a 
lyre  during  the  vintage  in  the  days  of  Homer. 
The  subject  of  the  songs  at  the  Luaghadh,  the 
Quern,  and  on  this  occasion,  are  sometimes 
love,  sometimes  panegyric,  and  often  a  re- 
hearsal of  the  deeds  of  the  ancient  heroes." 
All  these  things,  surely  a  splendid  inheritance 
and  worth  preserving,  surely  a  fine  contrast  to 
the  silly  songs  of  the  music-halls  of  Glasgow 
and  London,  have  gone,  swept  away  in  the 
desire  to  modernise  and  get  more  money  out 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        63 

of  life  instead  of  gaiety,  refinement,  good 
feeling,  character. 

I  have  heard  it  stated  that  in  Sannox  the 
people  were  evicted  because  there  had  been 
so  much  intermarrying  that  there  were  great 
numbers  of  deaf  and  dumb  persons  in  the  vil- 
lages !  I  have  not,  however,  found  any  justi- 
fication for  this  statement.  There  was  in  Arran 
generally,  as  there  is  in  all  country  districts,  a 
certain  amount  of  intermarrying,  but  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  commoner  than  in  any 
other  part  of  Scotland,  nor  than  in  English 
rural  districts,  and  it  was  certainly  less 
common  than  in  Norway  and  many  other 
parts  of  the  Continent.  My  judgment  is 
based  upon  a  list  of  the  surnames  then  in 
Sannox,  many  of  which  were  those  of  com- 
paratively new-comers,  and  not  of  Arran 
origin.  In  view  of  the  nearness  of  the  island 
to  Kintyre,  Bute,  the  mainland  of  Argyll, 
and  to  Renfrewshire  and  Ayrshire,  I  doubt 
much  whether  the  intermarrying  has  at  any 
time  been  great  enough  to  affect  the  health  and 
physique  of  the  people  in  the  slightest  degree. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  people  stood  in  the 


64  ARRAN 

way  of  huge  farms,  of  the  deer,  the  sheep, 
and  of  absolute  ownership ;  as  Mr.  Somer- 
ville  of  Lochgilphead,  quoted  by  MacKenzie,* 
said  of  that  time  :  "  The  watchword  of  all  is 
exterminate,  exterminate  the  native  race. 
Through  this  monomania  of  landlords  the 
cottar  population  is  all  but  extinct,  and  the 
substantial  yeomen  is  undergoing  the  same 
process  of  dissolution."  To  give  an  example, 
"  On  the  west  side  of  Loch  Awe,"  MacKenzie 
says,  "  once  forty-five  families  were  main- 
tained ;  the  place  is  now  rented  by  a  single 
sheep  farmer." 

Dr.  Donald  MacLeod,  writing  in  1863,  said, 
"  Is  not  a  man  better  than  sheep  ?  They  who 
would  have  shed  their  blood  like  water  for 
Queen  and  country  are  in  other  lands,  High- 
land still,  but  expatriated  for  ever." 

If  you  want  men  to-day, 

Pipe  you  never  so  loudly, 
No  lads  come  away 

With  their  cheeks  glowing  proudly ; 
You  may  call  on  the  deer, 

On  the  grouse  and  grey  wether, 
But  not  on  the  lads 

With  the  bonnet  and  feather  : 

*  History  of  the  Highland  Clearances. 


IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY        65 

When  you  called  to  the  fight 

Then  they  ever  were  ready, 
They,  light-hearted  and  gay, 

They,  the  strong  and  the  steady ! 


ARRAN    AND    THE    FORTY-FIVE 

The  Hamiltons  are  said  by  Mr.  Andrew 
Lang  not  to  have  been  on  the  side  of  the 
Stuarts  at  the  time  of  the  famous  rising, 
but  Mr.  James  MacBride,  writer  (of  Glas- 
gow), states  that  his  great-grandfather,  James 
MacGregor,  was  sent  by  the  duke  with  a 
letter  to  Prince  Charles.  When  MacGregor, 
whose  papers  seem  to  confirm  this  story, 
reached  the  prince,  he  was  at  Culloden,  and 
seeing  that  the  letter  could  now  only  bring 
certain  trouble  to  his  chief,  he  took  it  back 
to  the  duke,  who  was  pleased  with  his 
shrewdness.  Years  after,  when  MacGregor 
was  about  to  be  ejected  from  his  farm  at 
Clachan,  by  the  side  of  the  old  graveyard 
of  Shisken,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  duke, 
which  is  still,  I  understand,  preserved,  in 
which  he  appealed  against  the  factor's  action 
in  ejecting  him,  and  reminded  him  in  guarded 
5 


66  ARRAN 

language  of  the  service  he  had  rendered  years 
before.  MacGregor,  a  fiery  and  outspoken 
old  Highlander,  and  his  brother,  came  from 
Bracklin,  and  were  at  one  time  high  in  the 
duke's  favour. 

Mr.  MacBride,  who  tells  the  story,  is  the 
grand  old  man  of  Arran,  being  over  ninety 
years  of  age.  He  is  as  handsome,  as  rosy 
cheeked,  and  as  alert  as  a  man  of  sixty,  and 
still  goes  down  to  his  business  every  morn- 
ing at  nine  o'clock  and  discusses  his  clients' 
causes,  or,  in  unoccupied  moments,  will  crack 
over  old  Arran  memories  with  much  en- 
thusiasm. 

The  writer  of  the  New  Statistical  Account 
of  Kilmory  states  that  the  Hon.  Charles 
Boyle,  son  of  Lord  Kilmarnock,  fled,  like  his 
ancestors  had  done  in  Bruce's  time,  to  Arran, 
and  lay  concealed  in  the  farm  of  Auchalef- 
fan  till  he  found  a  chance  of  getting  across 
to  France.  This,  says  the  writer,  was  the 
Mr.  Boyle  who  received  Dr.  Johnson  at 
Slanes  Castle  many  years  later. 


THE  ARRAN  AND  BUTE  BARONS 

ON  the  mainland  of  Scotland,  highland  and 
lowland,  the  old  historic  names  have  gradually 
been  rooted  out,  just  as  in  England  the  old 
"  Statesmen  "  of  Westmorland  and  Cumber- 
land have  been  bought  or  sold  out  by  the  few 
great  landholders.  The  whole  tendency  has 
been  for  the  possession  of  the  land  to  become 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  very  few.  The 
Johnstones  no  longer  hold  Annandale  as 
"kindly  tenants"  or  small  lairds  ;  the  Gallo- 
way clans  are  mixed  up  with  the  rest  of  the 
community  ;  the  lairds  of  Kintyre  might  be 
numbered  on  your  fingers;  and  the  MacVicars, 
Munros,  MacNicols,  MacKellars,  Maclntur- 
ners,  and  others  have  long  disappeared  from 

Loch  Fyne.     The  very  names  have  in  many 

69 


70  ARRAN 

cases  vanished,  and  all  the  old  traditions  of 
the  countryside  which  they  inherited  from 
their  fathers  have  gone  with  them. 

In  Arran  and  in  Bute  things  were  some- 
what different,  and  as  reward  for  service 
rendered  to  the  Bruces  and  the  Stewarts  the 
old  Brandani  were  supported  in  their  posses- 
sions by  the  kings  to  which  the  two  islands 
belonged  from  time  to  time.  At  the  date  of 
the  Bute  charter  of  1506  the  Butemen  are 
shown  to  have  been  possessed  of  lands,  and 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
people  of  Arran,  with  whom  they  had  been 
closely  associated  in  all  their  exploits,  held, 
in  an  identical  manner,  the  lands  which  they 
had  probably  first  received  from  the  Sonier- 
ledian  chiefs,  the  design  of  Robert  Bruce  to 
keep  the  islands  as  a  recruiting  ground  for 
the  Scottish  army  being  clearly  shown  in  his 
will. 

So  it  has  happened  that  amongst  the 
people  of  Arran  and  Bute  are  still  represented 
the  old  Barons,  who  date  from  the  days  of 
Bruce  and  Robert  n.,  and  in  many  cases  from 
the  time  of  Somerled.  The  old  Gaelic  pro- 


OLD  FAMILIES  IN  ARRAN  71 

verb  says  :  "  Clann  Bhridean  agus  clann 
Ennain,  na  cloinne  a's  sine  ann  an  Arrinn," 
and  amongst  the  old  names  are  also  Mac- 
Louie  (MacLoy  or  Fullarton),  MacCook  (in 
Gaelic,  MacCug),  MacDavid  or  Davidson, 
MacGilker,  MacAllister,  Stewart,  Hunter, 
Kelso,  Kerr,  Kennedy,  MacMhurrich  or 
MacVurich  (which  has  been  whittled  down 
to  Murchie  and  Currie),  MacMaster,  Brown 
(MacBraon  or  MacBrayne),  MacNicol, 
Love,  Crawford,  Hamilton,  MacNish,  while 
MacMillan,  MacKillop,  MacKenzie,  Shaw, 
Thomson,  Robertson,  Bannatyne,  and  Mac- 
Kelvie  are  later  but  yet  old  names  in  the 
island.  Nearly  all  these  families  are  still 
represented  in  Arran,  though  their  names 
date  back  longer  than  those  of  half  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Mr.  Patrick  Murray,  late  factor  of  the  Arran 
estates,  writing  in  1890,  says  :  "One  thing  I 
have  had  brought  home  to  me  in  looking  back 
over  these  old  records  is  the  frequency  with 
which  I  recognise  names  in  the  rental  of  to- 
day in  that  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  In 
some  cases  the  same  names — both  surname 


72  ARRAN 

and  Christian — appear  in  the  very  same  farms 
as  they  did  last  century.  Any  of  these  Arran 
tenants  I  refer  to  would  have  no  difficulty  in 
compiling  their  pedigree  for  the  Herald's  Col- 
lege whenever  that  should  be  wanted." 

In  Arran  and  Bute  the  relations  between 
chief  and  people  had  in  old  times  been  excep- 
tionally close,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  account 
of  the  Battle  of  the  Stones  in  another  chapter. 
There  had  long  been  a  middle  class  of  gentry 
in  both  islands.  A  visitor  to  the  island  in 
1628  says  :  "  Neither  is  there  any  isle  like  to 
it  for  brave  gentry,  good  archers,  and  hill- 
hovering  hunters."  These  were,  it  seems 
from  the  surnames,  originally  descendants  of 
Somerled,  like  the  MacBrides,  MacKirdys, 
MacAllisters,  and  Bannatynes,  and  of  officers 
and  others  attached  to  the  household  of 
Somerled,  like  the  MacKinnons,  MacVurichs, 
and  probably  the  MacCugs,  Hunters,  and 
also  the  MacGilchattans  and  MacGildowies, 
who  seem  to  have  originated  in  Kintyre. 

According  to  the  tradition,  at  the  time  of 
Bruce,  they  were  confirmed  in  their  posses- 
sions, and  got  new  grants,  while  later  the 


OLD  ARRAN  HOUSES,  WHITING  BAY 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  Jf.S.A. 


' 


OLD  FAMILIES  IN  ARRAN  73 

Stewarts  and  others  joined  their  ranks  ;  their 
duty  was  to  provide  a  force  of  twenty-four 
men  to  form  the  king's  bodyguard.  They 
certainly  were  transferred  with  all  their 
rights  on  the  passing  of  the  island  of  Arran 
to  the  Lord  Hamilton,  who  had  married 
the  king's  sister,  Jane.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, as  is  shown  by  historical  documents, 
they  seem  to  have  held  by  military  service 
of  the  Hamiltons.  The  old  tradition  is  that 
the  holders  of  the  charters,  which  the  older 
generation  of  Arran  men  affirm  were  identical 
with  those  granted  to  MacLouie,  got  into 
debt  owing  to  the  small  annual  tribute  to  the 
superior  not  having  been  claimed  for  many 
years,  and  that  the  Hamilton  family  impounded 
the  charters.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  certain 
that  the  descendants  of  these  men  were  called 
"Baron"  within  the  recollections  of  persons 
now  living,  and  this  title  was  used  only  by 
military  tenants  of  the  Crown.  The  Rev. 
Neil  MacBride  of  Lamlash,  a  nephew  of  the 
Rev.  Alexander  MacBride,  author  of  the 
New  Statistical  Account  of  Kilmory  Parish, 
wrote  in  1890:  "  Bruce's  Arran  friends  who 


74  ARRAN 

received  gifts  of  land  in  the  island  bore  the 
names  you  have  given,  as  I  have  often  heard, 
and  a  descendant  of  one  of  them,  M'Kinnon, 
who  died  at  Brodick  in  my  own  day,  was 
better  known  as  '  The  Baron '  than  by  his 
own  name." 

Local  tradition  is,  and  has  always  been,  very 
strong  on  the  point.  MacArthur  says,  writing 
in  1870  :  "A  few  centuries  ago  the  lands  of 
the  island  were  divided  amongst  several  petty 
chiefs  or  barons,  and  standing  stones  were  raised 
as  landmarks  to  define  the  boundaries  of  their 
possessions,  and  prevent  the  encroachment  of 
neighbouring  chiefs  .  .  .  and  among  the  dells 
and  over  the  heathery  moors  these  rude  monu- 
ments of  the  island  chiefs  may  still  be  seen, 
mutely  eloquent  of  the  .  .  .  old  times.  By  the 
roadside  between  Brodick  and  Lamlash  there 
stand  three  massive  blocks  of  red  sandstone, 
which  are  said  to  mark  the  spot  where  the  lands 
of  three  of  the  old  proprietors  of  Arran  met." 
Pennant,  who  during  his  stay  in  the  island  in 
1771  was  shown  about  by  the  parish  minister, 
Mr.  Lindsay,  and  visited  Fullarton  of  Kilmich- 
ael,  and  no  doubt  got  his  information  largely 


OLD  FAMILIES  IN  ARRAN  75 

from  him,  says :  "  Arran  was  the  property  of  the 
Crown.  Robert  Bruce  returned  thither  during 
his  distresses,  and  met  with  protection  from  his 
faithful  vassals.  Numbers  of  them  followed  his 
fortunes  ;  and  after  the  battle  of  Bannockburn 
he  rewarded  several,  such  as  the  MacCooks, 
MacKinnons,  MacBrides,  and  MacLouies  or 
Fullartons  with  different  charters  of  lands  in 
their  native  country."  Other  writers  add 
the  names  of  the  Stewarts  and  Hunters  to 
this  list. 

Pennant  goes  on  to  say  :  "About  the  year 
1334  the  island  seems  to  have  formed  part  of 
the  estate  of  Robert  Stewart,  Great  Steward  of 
Scotland,  afterwards  Robert  n.  At  that  time  " 
(the  natives)  "lookup  arms  tosupportthe  cause 
of  their  master,  who  afterwards,  in  reward,  not 
only  granted  at  their  request  an  immunity  from 
their  annual  tribute  of  corn,  but  added  several 
new  privileges,  and  a  donation  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants that  were  present." 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  BRANDANES 
OR,    MEN    OF    ARRAN    AND    BUTE 

I  HAVE  in  the  following  pages  adopted  the  old 
name  of  the  islanders,  as  it  is  quite  impossible 
in  many  cases  to  distinguish  between  deeds 
done  by  the  Arran  or  Butemen  singly  and 
those  done  collectively. 

Arnold  Blair,  chaplain  to  Wallace,  from 
whose  MS.  Blind  Harry  got  his  material, 
writing  shortly  after  the  death  of  Wallace, 
in  1305,  says:  "In  this  unfortunate  battle 
(Falkirk)  were  slain,  on  the  Scottish  side, 
John  Stewart  of  Bute,  with  his  Brandans ; 
for  so  they  name  them  that  are  taken  up 
to  serve  in  the  wars  forth  of  the  Stewart's 
lands."  Both  the  islands  had,  it  will  be 
remembered,  been  acquired  by  the  Stewarts 

a  century  earlier  by  the  marriage  with  Jane, 

76 


THE  BRANDANES  77 

granddaughter  of  Angus  MacSomhairle. 
Hector  Boece,  writing  in  1527,  says: 
"  Brandani — ita  enim  ea  aetate  incolae  Arain 
et  Boitae  insularum  vulgo  vocabantur." 
"  The  term,"  says  Fullarton,  "  has  been  under- 
stood as  denoting  the  military  tenants  holding 
of  the  Great  Steward  "  ;  and  this  explanation 
seems  to  fit  in  best  with  all  the  facts,  especi- 
ally with  the  evidences  of  their  independent 
action  on  many  occasions, — an  independence 
worthy  of  the  old  Gall  Gael  of  whom  they 
were  the  descendants.  D.  Macpherson  says  : 
"The  people  of  Bute,  and  I  believe  also 
of  Arran,  perhaps  so  called  in  honour  of 
St.  Brendan."  St.  Brendan,  who  died  in  A.D. 
577,  was  a  companion  of  St.  Colum  or  Col- 
umba.  Camden  states  that  the  saint  lived 
and  laboured  in  Bute ;  but  there  seems  to 
be  no  direct  evidence  of  this. 

The  Rev.  Neil  MacBride  of  Lamlash 
again  suggests  that  the  word  Brandani 
means  the  bold  water  or  spray  men ;  and, 
of  course,  it  is  quite  possible  that  it  may 
mean  simply  the  men  of  the  sea  of  Bran- 
dan.  The  Book  of  Arran  goes,  I  think,  far 


78  ARRAN 

afield  when  it  follows  Captain  White,  who 
assumes  that  the  name  Kilbrannan  refers  to 
a  kil  or  cell  of  St.  Brendan  of  Clonfert,  and 
tries  to  find  in  a  small  church  on  the  coast  of 
Kintyre  the  actual  cell  of  this  saint.  Mr. 
Balfour,  is,  I  think,  equally  mistaken  in 
believing  that  in  the  site  at  Kilpatrick  they 
have  discovered  the  real  St.  Brendan's  church. 
The  site,  he  says,  is  "  on  the  northern  shoulder 
of  Leac  Bhreac."  The  name  of  the  hill  that 
guards  it  isTorr  an  Daimh,  which  he  translates 
"the  hill  of  the  church."  This  is,  he  says, 
"  the  only  known  memorial  save  the  record 
furnished  by  the  cashel  itself,  that  this  was 
one  of  the  first  outposts  of  Christianity  in 
Scotland."  This  site,  first  discovered  by  the 
Arran  Society,  may,  of  course,  be  ecclesi- 
astical, but  it  does  not  follow  that  it  was 
founded  by  Brendan. 

Mr.  Balfour  asks  where,  failing  this,  is  the 
church  which  gives  its  name  to  Kilbrandon 
Sound  ? 

St.  Brendan  does  not  seem  to  have  figured 
largely  in  the  West  Highlands.  There  is  a 
small  parish  church  in  Argyll  called  Kil- 


THE  BRANDANES  79 

brandon,  and  my  suggestion  is  that  the  name 
of  the  Sound  contains  no  reference  to  a 
church  ;  that  the  word  is  not  Kil  but  "  Kyle," 
a  narrow  sea,  passage,  or  strait  of  water, 
which  is  familiar  in  the  "  Kyles  "  of  Bute,  the 
"Kyle"  of  Lochalsh,  "  Kulri  "  in  Skye.  I 
suggest  that  this  name  was  given  long  before 
Brendan's  time,  and  is  taken  from  the  name 
Bran  or  Branan  MacLir,  a  brother  of  Man- 
nanan,  who  beyond  doubt  gave  his  name 
to  the  neighbour  isle  of  Man.  They  were 
sons  of  Ler  the  sea-god,  made  famous  by 
Shakespeare,  and  in  the  Keltic  story,  The 
Fate  of  the  Children  of  Lir.  The  old  name 
of  the  islanders,  assuming  that  it  contains  the 
same  root,  the  Brandani  or  Brannani,  would 
be  thus  the  followers  of  the  war-god,  a  name 
that  would  fit  their  character  when  history 
first  introduces  us  to  them.  By  that  time  Bran 
had  undergone  the  change  which  so  many  of 
his  brother  gods  underwent  when  the  Chris- 
tian monks  had  the  shrewdness  to  appropriate 
them  for  their  own  Church  ;  he  was  by  them 
credited  with  having  introduced  Christianity 
into  Britain,  and  became  Bran  the  Blessed ! 


8o  ARRAN 

The  fact  that  the  name  of  the  saint,  though 
common  in  Ireland,  does  not  occur  amongst 
the  men  either  of  Arran  or  Kintyre,  who  are 
all  men  of  the  Sound  of  Kilbrandon,  seems  to 
support  my  contention,  or  at  any  rate  to 
suggest  that  the  saint's  and  their  name  have 
no  connection  with  each  other,  save  that  they 
are  probably  borrowed  from  the  same  source. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  Rev.  J.  K. 
Hewison  in  his  Bute  in  the  Olden  Time, 
unlike  any  other  writer  on  the  subject, 
has  written  as  though  all  the  deeds  of  the 
Brandani  had  been  performed  by  the  Bute 
men  alone,  which  is  as  unreasonable  as  it 
would  be  to  suppose  that  Wallace's  remark 
given  by  Blind  Harry — "Good  westland  men 
of  Arran  and  Rauchle,  if  they  be  warned  they 
will  all  come  to  me,"  did  not  include  in 
Wallace's  mind  the  men  of  Bute  itself,  who 
with  their  Arran  kinsmen  and  the  men  of 
Fife  had  fought  so  splendidly  at  Falkirk. 


CHAPTER   X 
THE  LANGUAGE   OF  ARRAN 

THE  original  speech  of  Arran  was,  of  course, 
Gaelic,  which  was  the  common  language  of 
conversation  amongst  the  natives  till  some 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  That  it  is  now 
dying  out,  though  still,  of  course,  understood 
and  spoken,  is  greatly  to  be  regretted,  nay, 
it  is  sad  and  shameful.  Of  course,  until  the 
action  of  the  Highland  and  Scottish  Societies 
of  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  London,  and  the 
Colonies  nothing  was  done  for  its  encourage- 
ment, but  it  has,  after  a  long  agitation,  now 
been  placed  by  the  Education  Department 
on  the  same  footing  as  French,  or  Welsh,  or 
any  other  language.  It  remains  for  the  High- 
land people  themselves  to  insist  upon  it  being 
properly  taught  to  their  children  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools. 
6 


82  ARRAN 

The  excuse  for  neglecting  it — the  most 
precious  gift  the  Highlander  has  received 
from  his  cultured  ancestors  of  early  Christian 
times — was  that  it  interfered  with  the  teach- 
ing of  subjects  of  commercial  value.  This 
supposition  has  been  utterly  disproved  by 
many  years  of  actual  experience  of  Welsh 
teaching,  in  which  it  has  been  shown,  as 
admitted  by  inspectors,  that,  so  far  from  the 
bi-lingual  children  being  behind  the  others, 
they  are  invariably  more  intelligent,  more  alert, 
more  advanced  generally.  And,  of  course, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  must  be  so,  for  the 
English  language  is  far  less  opulent,  less 
complex  than  the  Keltic  tongues,  which  are 
more  capable,  therefore,  of  expressing  fine 
shades  of  thought  and  meaning. 

The  vocabulary  of  the  English  peasant 
has  been  estimated  to  contain  about  400  to 
600  words.  On  the  other  hand  a  German 
philologist,  Dr.  Finck,  some  years  ago  made 
a  study  of  the  language  of  the  Aran  island- 
ers on  the  spot.  Dr.  Finck  took  down  no 
less  than  4000  words  which  he  found  occurring 
in  the  daily  speech  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 


THE  LANGUAGE  OF  ARRAN  83 

remote  Irish  island.  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde, 
commenting  on  these  investigations,  wrote  at 
the  time  :  "Is  the  Board  so  ignorant  of  its 
own  business  that  it  does  not  know  that 
thought  is  conditioned  by  language,  and  that 
they  act  and  react  upon  one  another  so  intim- 
ately that  a  boy  with  a  vocabulary  of  4000 
words  will  have  many  times  more  numerous 
and  more  subtle  ideas  at  his  command  than 
a  boy  with  only  500  ?  " 

It  would  be  a  sad  disaster  if  the  Gaelic 
tongue  were  allowed  to  die  out  in  Arran,  but 
this  will  certainly  happen  if  the  people  of 
the  island,  especially  the  younger  men  and 
women,  do  not  see  that  it  is  taught  to  their 
children  in  the  schools  and  used  by  them- 
selves at  home  and  abroad  on  every  possible 
occasion. 

The  people  of  Argyll,  of  Inverness-shire, 
of  Ross,  and  other  Highland  counties,  have 
long  been  working  in  the  same  direction,  but, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  nothing  has  as  yet  been 
done  in  Arran.  In  Argyllshire,  close  by, 
great  things  are  being  accomplished  for  its 
advancement  by  the  London  Argyllshire 


84  ARRAN 

Association  and  other  societies,  and  the  Duke 
of  Argyll,  the  late  MacLaine  of  Lochbuie, 
Mrs.  Burnley- Campbell  of  Ormidale,  and 
many  others,  have  given  their  hearty  sym- 
pathy and  help  in  this  duty,  so  important 
intellectually  and  so  patriotic.  There  is  no 
landmark  of  our  fathers,  no  cairn,  or  fort,  or 
tower,  or  church,  deep  though  its  interest 
may  be,  which  is  as  important,  none  which 
has  so  completely  caught  the  mould  of  their 
thoughts,  their  hopes,  their  aspirations,  and 
which  can,  therefore,  be  so  sacred  to  their 
sons  and  daughters  as  the  language  in  which 
they  expressed  their  hearts. 


THE   AUTHOR    OF    THE    FIRST   GAELIC 
DICTIONARY  :    WILLIAM    SHAW 

Shaw,  the  compiler  of  the  first  dictionary 
of  the  Gaelic  language,  was  born  at  Clachaig, 
in  Kilmory  parish,  in  1749.  He  was  sent 
to  school  at  Ayr,  and  was  a  graduate  of 
Glasgow.  He  went  as  tutor  to  London  and 
there  met  Dr.  Johnson  and  other  literary 
lights.  When  he  told  Johnson  of  his 


THE  LANGUAGE  OF  ARRAN  85 

great  scheme  for  making  a  collection  of 
Gaelic  words,  the  old  doctor  heartily  ap- 
proved and  actually  drew  up  part  of  the 
"  Proposals  "  or  prospectus.  The  Highland 
people,  however,  did  not  respond,  and  Shaw 
raised  from  ^200  to  ^300  from  his  own 
property  and  started  for  the  Highlands. 
The  parting  words  of  Johnson  were  whole- 
hearted, appreciative,  and  encouraging. 
"Sir,"  he  said,  "if  you  give  the  world  a 
vocabulary  of  that  language,  while  the  island 
of  Great  Britain  stands  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
your  name  will  be  mentioned." 

This  was  in  1778;  in  the  year  following 
Shaw  entered  the  ministry.  He,  however, 
had  the  dictionary  at  heart,  and  travelled 
three  thousand  miles  in  Scotland  and  Ireland 
in  his  efforts  to  make  it  complete.  In  1780 
his  great  work  actually  appeared  in  two 
volumes.  Owing  to  the  unwillingness  of 
the  Scottish  peasants  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  words  were  collected  in  Ireland,  where 
the  compiler  was  more  generously  received, 
so  that  both  Scots  and  Irish  may  remember 
his  name  with  gratitude.  He  also  published 


86  ARRAN 

his  valuable  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writ- 
ings of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  and  later, 
among  other  things,  Suggestions  respecting  a 
Plan  of  National  Education,  and  An  Inquiry 
into  the  Authenticity  of  the  Poems  ascribed 
to  Ossian.  Of  the  reply  to  the  critics  of  this 
work  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  a  part.  Shaw  died 
at  Chelvey,  Somerset,  in  1831. 


DANIEL    MACMILLAN 

Arran  does  not  boast  many  literary  men 
amongst  her  sons,  but  she  does  boast  one  of 
the  most  famous  of  publishers  in  Daniel 
MacMillan,  founder  of  the  great  firm  of 
MacMillan  of  London,  who  was  born  at 
High  Corrie  in  1813.  He  was  the  son  of 
Duncan  MacMillan  and  his  wife  Katherine 
Crawford,  also  an  Arran  woman.  His  grand- 
father, Malcolm  MacMillan,  was  Tacksman  of 
the  Cock  Farm,  and  was  allied,  we  are  told,  to 
the  MacMillans  of  Sanquhar  and  Arndarroch, 
Kirkcudbrightshire,  though  the  names,  like 
Malcolm,  Duncan,  Neil,  Donald,  and  Daniel 
^  which  in  the  Highlands  is  generally  a  bad 


THE  LANGUAGE  OF  ARRAN  87 

attempt  to  Anglicise  the  name  Donald),  su  ggest 
the  Argyllshire  MacMillans.  The  family 
were  in  Corrie  and  in  North  and  Mid  Sannox 
in  1776.  They  intermarried  with  the  Kelsos, 
Crawfords,  MacKenzies,  and  others  in 
Sannox,  once  a  populous  district. 


HARVESTING,  TORMORE 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WINGATE,  R.S.A. 


PART  V 

OUR  EARLY  ANCESTORS  IN 
ARRAN 


CHAPTER   XI 

ARRAN'S  WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC 
REMAINS 

ARRAN  is  also  peculiarly  rich  in  prehistoric 
remains,  in  ancient  forts,  stone  circles,  cham- 
bered cairns,  and  the  standing  stones  which 
give  so  rare  and  weird  a  character  to  the 
Highland  landscape.  Many  more,  it  is  to  be 
regretted,  have  been  destroyed.  Where  were 
many  standing  stones,  now  there  is  often  left 
but  one,  and  the  chambered  graves  have  been 
all  more  or  less  dismantled  by  rude  hands. 

Machrie  Moor,  over  against  Shisken,  which 
is  believed  to  have  been  once  a  densely 
populated  district,  is  the  chief  site  of  these 
profoundly  interesting  monuments. 

Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  stone  circles,  such  as 
those  we  see  in  Arran,  at  Machrie,  and  other 
places,  and  many  of  the  single  standing  stones, 


92  ARRAN 

are  memorials  of  chieftains  who  have  fallen 
in  the  fight.  This  discovery  was  first  made 
by  Mr.  C.  E.  Dalrymple,  from  actual  ex- 
cavations below  the  monuments  in  Aberdeen- 
shire  and  Kincardine,  and  the  facts  were 
published  by  Stuart.  Dr.  James  Bryce,  of 
Glasgow,  followed  these  investigations  up 
by  excavations  on  Machrie  Moor,  and  found 
corroboration  of  Mr.  Dalrymple's  statements. 
As  long  ago  as  1527  Boece  says:  "The 
graves  and  sepulchres  of  our  noblemen  had 
commonlie  so  many  obelisks  and  speirs 
pitched  about  them,  as  the  deceased  had 
killed  enemies  before  time  in  the  field." 

Similar  stones  were,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  set  up  to  mark  the  marches  of  the 
estates  of  the  various  chiefs.  The  right  of 
MacMillan  to  the  estate  of  Knap  in  Argyll- 
shire is  cut  in  Gaelic  upon  the  surface  of  a  rock. 
In  the  case  of  the  Cat  Stone  near  Edinburgh, 
about  which  Sir  James  Young  Simpson  wrote, 
the  name,  from  the  Gaelic  Cat  or  Cath,  is  a 
sufficient  explanation  of  its  origin.  A  similar 
"  Cat,"  or  Battle-Stone,  marks  the  spot  where 
Somerled  is  said  to  have  fallen  near  Houston 


WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     93 

in  Renfrewshire,  and  the  Tanist  and  King's 
Stones  commemorate  great  events  or  customs. 
But  nowhere  else  in  the  kingdom  can  there 
be  found,  in  the  small  space  of  twenty-four 
miles  by  seven,  such  a  wealth  of  prehistoric 
remains  as  in  Arran.  Blackwaterfoot  once 
boasted  the  largest  known  prehistoric  burial 
mound,  and  the  Arran  skulls  discovered  by 
the  late  Dr.  James  Bryce  were  the  first  in- 
disputable examples  of  the  Stone  Age  type 
which  had  been  found.  Again,  the  ancient 
graves,  formed  of  square  stone  slabs  set  on 
end  and  divided  into  small  chambers  and 
roofed  in  by  heavy  stone  slabs,  such  as  were 
found  and  may  be  seen  at  Whiting  Bay, 
at  Dippen,  Blairmore,  at  Kilmorie  Water- 
foot,  in  two  places  ;  at  Slidderie,  Monamor, 
Sannox,  Shisken,  Tormore,  Moinechoill, 
Dunan  Beg,  and  Dunan  More,  Torlin, 
and  Clachaig,  are  of  great  interest.  Dr. 
Thomas  H.  Bryce  says,  in  one  of  his  lectures 
on  "  Prehistoric  Man  and  his  Monuments  in 
the  Island  of  Arran  "  ;  "  Only  at  two  localities 
in  Argyllshire  have  structures  like  these  been 
described  in  Scotland,  and  their  place  is 


94  ARRAN 

determined  by  the  study  of  the  Arran 
structures."  Graves. of  this  type  ("mega- 
lithic")  are  called  "chambered  cairns,"  and 
they  were  intended  for  many  interments. 
Some  of  the  remains  found  in  them  show 
signs  of  cremation,  others  of  ordinary  burial 
in  a  sitting  posture. 

Besides  these  cairns  there  has  been  found 
in  Arran  another  type  called  the  "  short  cist." 
This  is  a  single  compartment,  carefully  formed 
of  stone  slabs,  and  often  surrounded  by  one 
of  the  stone  circles  so  picturesque  and  so  im- 
pressive, while  sometimes  a  great  cairn  or 
mound  is  erected  over  it.  The  short  cist  was 
intended  for  the  burial  of  only  a  single  body 
in  the  sitting  posture.  About  fourteen  of 
these  cists  have  been  discovered  in  Arran  at 
South  Feorline,  Blackwaterfoot,  Kilpatrick 
(two),  Clachaig,  Cnocan  a'  Choilich,  Glenkill, 
Benlester  Burn,  Lamlash,  Merkland  Point, 
North  Sannox,  Whitefarland,  Auchancar, 
Machrie  Waterfoot,  Dippen,  Auchancairn. 
Details  of  the  excellent  work  done  in  excavat- 
ing these  monuments  is  given  in  The  Book 
of  Arran.  There  will  be  found  also  a  list  of 


WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     95 

other  ancient  remains  whose  character  is  not 
now  clear,  owing  largely  to  vandalism  prac- 
tised upon  them  at  various  times.  For  it  is 
to  be  greatly  regretted  that  the  sacred  char- 
acter of  these  monuments  has  been  sadly 
overlooked  or  disregarded.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
however,  that  the  protest  made  by  Mr.  Balfour 
in  the  book  referred  to  will  have  effect. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  discovery  of  these 
monuments,  and  the  human  remains  and 
ancient  pottery  they  contained,  we  would  now 
know  little  about  our  early  ancestors.  They, 
taken  together  with  the  discovery  of  similar 
pottery  and  similar  remains  by  English  arch- 
aeologists like  Beddoe  and  Greenwell,  and  the 
admirable  work  of  Schmidt,  Topinard,  Broca, 
and  others  on  the  Continent,  with  spade 
and  pen,  linked  up  the  archaeological  chain. 
For  in  the  chambered  cairns  of  Arran  and 
long  barrows  of  England,  and  the  dolmens 
of  France  and  Spain,  they  found  a  type  of 
skull  and  of  pottery  which  were  practically 
identical  with  the  remains  in  our  chambered 
cairns.  In  the  single  or  short  cist,  and  the 
round  barrows  of  England,  they  found  a  quite 


96  ARRAN 

different  type  of  skull  and  of  pottery,  and  also 
relics  showing  that  the  men  of  these  burials 
belonged  to  the  Bronze  Age  at  a  date  previous 
to  the  Christian  era,  while  the  chambered 
cairn  and  long  barrow  men  proved  to  be  of 
a  still  earlier  period.  They  also  saw  that 
these  earlier  wanderers  came  from  the  south, 
and  spread  from  the  Mediterranean  lands 
over  a  considerable  part  of  Europe,  includ- 
ing England,  the  west  of  Scotland,  and  the 
Hebrides ;  that  they  were  dark  in  type,  and 
short  in  stature. 


THE    ETHNOLOGY    OF   ARRAN 

Could  any  romance  be  greater  than  this 
unravelling  of  the  tangled  skein  of  history  ? 
But  it  is  not  quite  all.  Ethnology  is  hardly 
yet  a  science,  though  it  is  now  conducted 
on  scientific  lines  and  is  making  rapid  pro- 
gress. Since  ethnologists  turned  to  the  study 
of  craniology,  or  the  shapes  of  skulls,  they 
found  rock  to  build  upon  instead  of  the  sand 
on  which  they  had  relied  when  they  set  down 
races  and  docketed  them  according  to  the 


WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     97 

language  they  spoke.  If  I  may  quote  my 
own  words  of  ten  years  since :  "  The  origin 
and  distribution  of  the  races  of  Europe  was 
thought  to  have  been  settled  by  the  Aryan 
wave  theory,  which  made  out  that  the  Keltic 
people,  including  the  Irish,  Welsh,  Scots, 
Bretons,  Picts,  and  British  came  over  to 
Europe  from  Asia  in  waves  or  droves,  the 
last  comers  pushing  the  first  comers  into  the 
mountainous  districts. 

"This  theory  had  been  almost  universally 
accepted  till  it  fell  under  the  lancet  of  the 
anthropologist,  when  it  was  found  to  present 
glaring  defects,  and  difficulties  which  appeared 
to  many  scholars  to  be  insurmountable,  and 
so  they  have,  through  the  labours  of  Schmidt, 
Greenwell,  Broca,  Beddoe,  Taylor,  Huxley, 
Ripley,  and  others,  abandoned  the  philological 
method  for  the  anthropological  one. 

"  Anthropology  proves  that  language  is  not 
by  any  means  a  sure  test  of  race.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  found  that  in  the  matter 
of  shape  of  skull,  height,  and  colour,  nature 
is  persistent,  and  that  mixed  races  show  a 
tendency  to  atavism — to  throw  back  to  re- 
7 


98  ARRAN 

mote  ancestors — just  as  they  also  blend  and 
make  new  types.  It  shows  that  in  the  pure 
race  there  is  one  type  and  not  two,  that  in 
ancient  interments  the  skulls  are  generally 
either  all  broad  or  all  long.  And  that,  more- 
over, where  a  small  number  of  men  settled 
amongst  a  larger  community,  the  tendency 
was  for  the  amalgamated  race  to  revert  to 
the  original  type  of  the  larger  community  in 
shape  of  skull,  size  of  body,  and  complexion. 

"  For  example,  the  Anglo-Saxon  played  a 
great  part  in  the  history  of  England  ;  yet  it  has 
been  pointed  out  years  ago  that  men  of  the 
true  German  type,  with  very  light  hair  and 
very  pale  blue  eyes,  are  almost  unknown  in 
England  to-day."*  And  Dr.Thomas  H.  Bryce 
has  recently  pointed  out  that  the  wave  of 
broad-headed  people  hardly  touched  the  west, 
and  has  left  very  little  trace  of  its  presence. 
"  So  that  when  we  find  many  shapes  of  skull 
and  many  complexions,  etc.,  amongst  a  people, 
we  know  that  there  is  great  mixture  of  race."* 

The  people  of  Arran  are  in  the  main 
strikingly  similar  in  shape  of  skull  to  the 

*  The  Origin  of  the  Lowlanders,  1900. 


WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     99 

types  found  in  the  ancient  chambered 
cairns  of  the  island.  Looking  upon  it 
from  above,  the  skull  is  a  very  long  oval, 
narrowing  at  both  ends,  at  the  forehead 
and  cerebullum,  and  widening  out  consider- 
ably above  the  ears,  the  back  part  or 
cerebullum  being  very  prominent.  Dr. 
Bryce,  in  The  Book  of  Arran,  gives  photo- 
graphs of  skulls  of  this  type.  So  far  as  I 
remember,  they  differ  from  those  found  by 
Sir  Daniel  Wilson  in  Lothian  and  in  Fife, 
not  in  their  length,  but  in  tapering  much 
more  towards  the  back  and  front,  save  in 
one  instance.  The  East  Lothian  and  Fife- 
shire  specimens  are  almost  square  at  the 
four  corners,  but  the  Arran  type  is  emphatic- 
ally not  so ;  it  is  distinctly  oval,  and  of 
well-defined  and  symmetrical  proportions. 
The  Arran  man,  as  Paterson  pointed  out  in 
1831,  is  generally  dark,  and  despite  the  claims 
of  those  who  would  discover  evidences  of 
Norse  blood  in  Arran,  it  is  very  difficult  to 
find  there  men  of  Norse  type.  We  find, 
of  course,  a  not  inconsiderable  number  of 
men  of  the  tall,  white-skinned,  red-cheeked, 


ioo  ARRAN 

red-haired  Scottish  type,  which  is  common 
all  over  Scotland,  but  especially,  it  seems  to 
me,  in  the  Perthshire  district.  We  find 
the  tall,  yellow-fair,  long-headed  Kymric, 
or  miscalled  "  Keltic "  type,  but  the  real 
blonde  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Germany 
is  most  rare,  if  not  quite  unknown.  The 
Arran  people  are  clearly  representative  of 
the  long-headed,  dark  man  of  the  cham- 
bered cairns,  now  called  "Mediterranean." 

Sir  Daniel  Wilson  said  a  good  many  years 
ago :  "  As  to  the  early  Scandinavian  type,  I 
was  led  to  conceive,  contrary  to  the  conclusion 
of  continental  investigators — in  relation  to 
Northern  Europe — that  the  earliest  Scottish, 
and  indeed  British,  race  differed  entirely 
from  that  of  Scandinavia,  as  defined  by 
Professor  Wilson  and  others,  being  char- 
acterised by  markedly  elongated  and  narrow 
cranium,  tapering  equally  towards  the  fore- 
head and  occiput.  ..." 

The  difference  between  the  very  fine 
skulls  found  in  the  MacArthur  Cave  at  Oban 
and  the  Arran  skulls  referred  to  is  slight,  the 
Arran  examples  being,  if  anything,  a  little  less 


WEALTH  OF  PREHISTORIC  REMAINS     101 

heavy,  that  is,  finer,  and  more  varied  in  out- 
line. Both  examples  are  distinctly  longer 
than  the  Norse  skull  of  to-day,  which  is 
round,  mesaticephalic,  or  even  brachycephalic, 
seldom  dolichocephalic.  It  also  never  shows 
the  tremendous  development  of  the  occiput 
so  notable  in  Scotland.  The  Norse  are  to- 
day a  very  mixed  people,  and,  so  far  as  my 
observation  goes,  Lapp  characteristics  ap- 
pear in  some  members  of  most  Norwegian 
families.  We  find  also  very  pure  types  in 
the  same  families  of  the  traditional  and  hand- 
some Norseman,  fair,  and  aquiline  of  nose. 
Even  this  type  is,  I  believe,  nothing  like  so 
long-skulled  as  the  Arran  heads  of  long  ago, 
or  as  the  ordinary  Scotsman,  who  is  regarded 
as  possessing  the  longest  head  in  Europe. 
So  I  have  been  told  by  those  who  have 
exceptional  opportunities  of  making  com- 
parisons with  foreign  races. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  red  hair 
arises  from  the  contact  of  a  dark  and  a  fair 
race  ;  but  there  seems  to  be  something  more 
in  it  than  that,  something  older,  and  sugges- 
tive of  a  separate  race  which  started  from 


102  ARRAN 

the  beginning  on  different  lines.  The  de- 
scription of  the  "ruddy  hair  and  large 
limbs  "  of  the  Caledonian,  written  by  Tacitus 
about  the  year  97  A.D.,  would  do  admirably 
for  the  big  men  we  see  to-day  so  often  in  the 
market-place  at  Perth,  or  less  frequently 
in  the  Arran  lanes,  and,  though  contact 
might  bring  us  some  specimens  of  a  type, 
Tacitus'  reference  was  clearly  to  a  whole  race 
who  were  more  or  less  of  that  description. 


CHAPTER   XII 

ANCIENT  FORTS  AND  CAMPS 

NOTHING  impresses  one  so  much  with  the 
fact  of  the  former  importance  of  Arran,  owing 
to  the  very  central  position  it  occupied 
between  the  various  tribes  who  had  settled 
in  prehistoric  times  on  the  mainland  or  on  the 
islands  around,  than  the  green  mounds  which 
mark  the  remains  of  its  wonderful  chain  of 
camps,  forts,  or  dunes.  In  these  the  natives 
kept  watch  over  the  dividing  seas  for  white 
sailed  boat  or  narrow  canoe  or  coracle,  and 
when  they  saw  the  invading  force  it  was  to 
such  great  camps  as  that  of  Drumadoon  or 
Glen  Eas  (Ashdale),  or  Tor  Caisteal  they 
brought  their  women  and  their  other  wealth. 
They  belong  to  the  greater  fortresses  of  the 
coast,  but  besides  these,  everywhere,  in 
every  glen,  there  were  small  forts  from 


103 


104  ARRAN 

behind  whose  walls  no  doubt  arrows  could  be 
shot  in  safety  at  the  enemy  who  dared  to 
enter  these  fastnesses.  From  them  in  every 
case,  I  know,  a  view  is  obtained  of  the  entire 
glen.  A  good  example  is  that  in  Glen  Cloy, 
in  which  Bruce  is  said  to  have  kept  watch 
for  the  soldiers  of  Edward.  From  it  one 
can  see  the  whole  of  the  glen.  At  the  point 
at  which  Glen  Easbuig  and  Glen  an't  Suidhe 
meet,  to  the  north  of  the  Shisken  road,  is  the 
site  of  another  fort  which  must  have  com- 
manded a  splendid  view  of  the  Vale  of  Shisken. 

DRUMADOON 

Of  the  greater  forts,  that  of  Drumadoon 
is  by  far  the  most  interesting.  Splendidly 
situated  on  the  sea  cliffs  some  200  ft.  above 
the  beach,  its  features  can  still  be  made  out. 
Its  wall,  10  ft.  in  thickness,  protected  a  space 
of  some  acres  in  extent.  Its  commanding 
position  and  its  excellent  defences  rendered 
it  impregnable,  and  a  safe  sheltering  place  for 
the  whole  district  of  Waterfoot,  which  must 
have  been,  from  its  flatness,  so  exposed  to  the 
assaults  of  enemies  from  over  seas. 


CAISTEAL  ABHAIL 

(THE  PEAKS  OF  THE  CASTLES) 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


ANCIENT  FORTS  AND  CAMPS          105 
TOR    CAISTEAL 

The  next  link  in  the  chain  of  coast  de- 
fences is  Tor  Caisteal,  near  Sliddery,  a  few 
miles  farther  south.  This  fort  is  circular,  and 
1 60  ft.  in  circumference,  its  walls  were  some 
6  ft.  thick,  and  the  approach  to  its  entrance 
was  protected  by  a  smaller  fort  or  outwork. 
The  hill  on  which  the  castle  was  built  is  said 
to  be  artificial.  The  men  who  constructed 
it  showed  skill  and  intelligence,  which  prove 
them  to  have  been  far  above  the  condition  of 
mere  savages. 

GLEN    ASHDALE 

The  fort  or  camp  of  Glen  Ashdale  occupied 
a  fine  position  overlooking  the  great  glen. 
The  walls  showed  a  thickness  of  25  ft.,  and 
were  formed  of  huge  sandstone  and  granite 
blocks  skilfully  put  together,  and  enclosing  a 
space  of  290  ft.  or  thereabouts.  The  glen 
itself  is  in  point  of  richness  of  foliage  and  the 
splendid  colour  of  the  sandstone  cliffs  exceed- 
ingly fine,  and  very  different  in  character  to 
the  wild  glens  of  the  north.  The  waterfall 
is  the  highest  in  the  island. 


io6  ARRAN 

KING'S  CROSS 

At  King's  Cross,  close  to  the  monolith 
which,  tradition  says,  commemorates  the 
embarkation  of  Bruce  and  his  followers  for 
the  Carrick  coast,  is  the  site  of  a  small  round 
fort,  15  ft.  in  diameter,  behind  which  the 
natives  could  no  doubt  defend  the  landing- 
place. 

DUN  FION 

Dun  Fion,  on  the  other  side  of  Lamlash  Bay, 
was  one  of  the  island's  chief  defences,  like 
Tor  Coille.  It  stands  some  600  ft.  above  sea- 
level,  on  the  hill  above  Clauchlands  Point, 
and  its  wall  of  5  ft.  in  thickness  enclosed  a 
space  of  140  ft.  The  walls  are  said  to  have 
showed  signs  of  vitrefaction,  which,  Sir  George 
MacKenzie  suggested,  was  caused  by  the 
beacon  fires  lit  in  these  forts  from  time  to 
time.  The  walls  being  composed  of  porphyry 
and  sandstone  would,  it  was  suggested,  be 
fused  by  a  very  moderate  heat  As  a  look-out 
station,  the  position  of  Dun  Fion  is  one  of 
the  best  in  the  island.  No  hostile  galley 
could  approach  from  north  or  east  without 


ANCIENT  FORTS  AND  CAMPS          107 

being  noticed,  and  when  the  help  of  others  was 
needed  the  beacon  from  Dun  Fion  could 
be  seen  far  and  wide,  at  the  small  fort  at 
King's  Cross  to  the  south,  at  the  great  one 
by  Brodick  and  the  small  one  of  Springfield 
to  the  north.  From  these  would  leap  up 
similar  beacon  fires  to  warn  the  good  folk  all 
round  the  island,  and  across  at  Carradale  and 
Dalaruan  in  Kintyre  and  Bute,  whence  the 
kinsmen  of  the  islanders,  and  the  Somerledian 
chiefs,  could  send  them  aid. 

CRAIG    NA    CUIROCH 

Out  of  the  great  fort  of  Brodick  rose  the 
historic  castle  which  has  been,  I  believe, 
oftener  attacked  and  burnt  than  any  fortress 
of  the  West  Highlands.  From  Brodick  the 
next  fort,  going  north,  is  the  old  one  overlooking 
Sannox  Bay,  and  from  there  the  coast  needed 
no  defence,  being  so  precipitous,  till  we  reach 
Loch  Ranza,  and  find  the  remains  of  the  great 
fort  on  Craig  na  Cuiroch.  The  defence  of  a 
place  like  Ranza  must  have  been  compara- 
tively easy ;  indeed,  it  must  have  been  im- 
possible for  an  enemy  to  approach  it,  for  the 


io8  ARRAN 

natives  could  assail   the   invaders  from  the 
surrounding  hills. 

The  real  weakness  of  Arran  lay  in  the 
Machrie  Moor  and  Shisken  districts,  where 
landing  was  easy,  and  the  wide  plain  was 
difficult  to  defend  with  a  small  force.  The 
interior  of  the  island  would,  however,  afford 
a  succession  of  death-traps  to  any  troops,  and 
it  is  pretty  certain  that  they  were  seldom  if 
ever  assailed  by  the  Norsemen  or  any  other 
invaders,  and  certainly  never  held  by  them. 
The  purely  Gaelic  character  of  the  place- 
names  of  these  parts,  save  in  one  or  two  great 
passes  like  that  of  Glen  Hamadel,  corroborate 
this  conclusion. 

TORNANSCHIAN 

The  list  of  forts,  small  and  large,  is  by  no 
means  exhausted,  showing  clearly  that  the 
island  was  well  populated  and  strongly  held 
in  old  times.  So  strong  were  the  defences 
that  the  old  duns  were  probably  in  use  for 
a  thousand  years,  each  succeeding  generation 
finding  them  of  service,  just  as  the  followers 
of  Bruce  found  Tornanschian,  the  "stalwart 


ANCIENT  FORTS  AND  CAMPS          109 

place  "  in  Glen  Cloy,  useful  at  need.  It  was 
undoubtedly  a  strong  place  ;  even  as  late  as 
1772  Pennant  says:  "A  mile  beyond  Kil- 
michael  is  Tornanschian  Castle,  surrounded 
by  a  great  stone  dike.  Here  Robert  Bruce 
sheltered  himself  for  some  time."  Pennant 
also  saw  "  five  earthen  tumuli  there  in  a  row, 
with  another  outside  of  them.  On  that  of 
another  is  a  circle  of  stones,  whose  ends  just 
appear  above  the  earth.  Probably,"  he  adds, 
"  the  memorials  of  some  battle." 

In  the  fifteenth  century  we  hear  of  the 
Arran  lairds  strengthening  the  defences  of  the 
island  on  account  of  the  raids  of  the  Kintyre 
clans.  It  is  probable  that  the  old  forts  at 
Drumadoon  and  Torcastle,  Glen  Ashdale 
and  Dun  Fion,  were  then  still  in  use. 


PART  VI 

ARRAN— THE   BATTLE-GROUND 
OF  THE  VIKING  AGE 


CHAPTER   XIII 

ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE 

IT  is  unfortunate  that,  owing  to  their  stormy 
history  and  the  loss  of  their  records,  but  per- 
haps far  more  to  the  neglect  and  suppression 
of  the  native  language  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  history  of  the 
Western  Highlands  and  Islands,  which  has 
been  of  so  stirring  a  character,  has  not  and 
perhaps  cannot  be  fully  written. 

Assuredly  no  greater  misfortunes  could 
have  happened  to  the  Gaelic  people  of  the 
West  Highlands,  advanced  as  they  were 
in  the  arts,  skilled  in  the  manufacture  of 
beautiful  cloths,  in  the  carving  of  fine  monu- 
ments ;  in  the  illuminating  of  the  most 
beautiful  missals  and  manuscripts  the  world 
can  boast ;  steeped  as  they  were  to  the 
lips  in  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  new 


H4  ARRAN 

Christian  religion,  than  to  have  been  sub- 
merged by  hordes  of  destructive  ruffians ; 
and  later  to  have  been  associated  with  a 
race  of  kings  partly  alien  in  blood  and 
wholly  alien  in  spirit.  It  was  a  calamity 
that,  under  the  monstrous  idea  that  it  was 
a  superior  civilisation,  those  rulers  should 
have  forced  upon  them  the  feudal  system, 
than  which  the  mind  of  man  never  invented 
a  more  wicked  and  ingenious  device  for 
keeping  his  fellow-man  in  subjection. 

It  is  true  that  Scotland,  only  in  parts  and 
to  a  limited  extent,  fell  in  any  real  sense 
under  the  black  hand  of  feudalism.  In  law, 
however,  it  did  so,  and  the  assumption  that 
every  breach  of  it  was  wrongful  plunged 
Scotland,  especially  in  the  non-feudalised 
parts,  into  endless  trouble  and  disaster.  It 
was  largely  because  of  it  that  the  High- 
lands and  the  Border  districts,  differing  little 
from  them,  like  the  district  of  Galloway, 
were  inevitably  rebels  against  a  system  that 
was  not  theirs,  which  was  infinitely  inferior 
to  their  own  system,  and  which  was  at  no 
time  understood  by  them.  Their  rebellion  has 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  115 

lasted  for  all  these  centuries  and  exists  to-day, 
as  a  glance  at  the  recent  history  of  the  land 
question  in  the  Highlands  will  show. 

Without  remembering  these  facts  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  understand  the  history  of 
Arran,  or  of  any  other  island  of  the  Hebrides, 
or  of  the  mainland  Highland  districts.  It 
was  the  Norsemen  of  France,  who  came  in 
Malcolm's  and  King  David's  train,  who  first 
brought  us  feudalism,  and  did  something  to 
convert  the  freeman  of  the  South  of  Scotland 
into  a  serf.  The  feudal  lords  were  often 
mere  adventurers  from  the  Continent,  like 
the  Baliols  and  the  Bruces  and  the  Hastings 
who  claimed  the  crown  of  Alexander,  or  Eng- 
lishmen whose  real  interest  was  in  the  south, 
and  they  showed  clearly  in  the  War  of  In- 
dependence that  they  would  have  preferred 
the  splendid  chains  of  Edward  to  independ- 
ence under  a  Scottish  monarch.  As  the 
contemporary  Englishman  who  wrote  the 
Chronicle  of  Lanercost  puts  it : 

"...  the  greater  part  were  for  England, 
probably  to  save  their  lands  there,  for  their 
hearts  were  with  their  property." 


n6  ARRAN 

THE   CHRISTIANS    OF    IONA 

The  Norse  incursions  commenced,  so  far  as 
we  know,  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland 
about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  or 
possibly  earlier,  but  the  true  Viking  era  was 
caused  by  the  revolt  of  the  independent 
chieftains  of  Norway  against  the  attempt  of 
Harald  Harfaager  (the  fairhaired)  to  con- 
quer Norway  and  make  himself  a  great 
kingdom.  This  he  succeeded  in  accomplish- 
ing about  the  year  888.  The  best  of  the 
chiefs  made  for  Iceland,  which  they  colonised 
and  cultivated,  probably  absorbing  the  small 
bands  of  Gaelic  monks  and  settlers  they 
found  there.  The  rest  took  to  the  galleys 
and  commenced  their  attacks  upon  the  coasts 
of  their  own  country  of  Norway,  and  probably 
of  Sweden  and  Denmark,  and  made  their  ap- 
pearance in  the  islands  of  Orkney  and  Shet- 
land, which  they  conquered  and  colonised. 

It  was  then  they  made  their  first  attempt 
upon  the  Dalriadic  settlers  in  Argyll,  and  the 
South  Isles,  who  had  done  so  much  to  graft 
the  higher  civilisation  of  Ireland  on  to  the 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  117 

life  of  their  kindred  in  the  West  Highlands 
during  the  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth 
centuries.  The  headquarters  of  their  king- 
dom was  Dalaruan,  which  we  now  know  as 
Campbeltown  in  Kintyre,  and  not  far  away, 
in  lona,  their  countryman,  St.  Colum  or 
Columba,  had  carried  on  his  great  work  of 
Christianising  the  west.  Many  devoted  men 
followed  in  his  footsteps. 

With  the  coming  of  Harald  the  Fair- 
haired  to  punish  his  rebellious  subjects  for 
their  harrying  of  his  coasts,  we  get  upon  some- 
what firmer  ground,  though  we  must  allow  a 
little  always  for  the  bombastical  style  of  the 
Saga  writers.  Harald  swept  down  upon  the 
Southern  Hebrides  about  the  year  888,  and, 
after  catching  the  rebels  and  utterly  defeat- 
ing them  in  the  great  battle  of  Hafursfiord, 
he  laid  his  heavy  hand  upon  the  islands  in 
which  they  had  taken  refuge  from  his  rule, 
and  completely  subdued  them,  from  Shetland 
and  the  Orkneys  to  the  South  Isles,  where 
he  had  many  battles.  His  countrymen  who 
had  settled  in  the  isles  made  their  escape  to 
Iceland,  and  there  went  with  them  a  consider- 


u8  ARRAN 

able  number  of  the  islanders,  whose  Gaelic 
names,  like  Nial  and  Cormac  are  notable  in 
the  Icelandic  Sagas. 

From  the  time  of  Harald  until  1256  the 
Norse  sovereignty  over  the  Orkneys  and 
Shetlands  was  unbroken,  but  their  tenure  of 
the  South  Isles  was  less  secure.  There,  as 
Professor  MacKinnon  says,  the  native  chiefs 
disputed  supremacy  with  the  Norse  magnates. 
It  is  notable  that  the  only  Norse  literature 
worthy  of  the  name  was  produced  by  the 
mixed  breed  of  Icelanders  and  Kelts. 


THE    VALE   OF    SHISKEN    AND    MACHRIE 
MOOR 

In  all  these  doings  it  is  probable  that  Arran 
played  a  prominent  part.  It  was  directly 
opposite  the  capital  of  the  Dalriadic  king- 
dom, and  the  great  and  fertile  vales  of  Shis- 
ken  and  Machrie  lent  themselves  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  arts  of  peace  which  were 
common  amongst  the  Dalriadic  people. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  at  one  time  the  great 
plain  was  a  populous  and  busy  place,  where 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  119 

hammers  rang  out  on  the  evening  stillness, 
and  spinners  and  spinsters  wrought  fine 
cloths,  and  masons  carved  fair  crosses  and 
stones  with  the  rich  and  lovely  interlaced 
patterns  which  belonged  to  our  forefathers, 
and  are  part  of  the  neglected  inheritance 
they  left  us.  In  this  great  plain  we  still 
find  in  unequalled  abundance  the  monuments 
and  the  burial-places  of  Pict  and  Scot  and 
Norseman,  and  of  the  men  of  the  remoter 
Stone  and  Bronze  Ages,  from  whom  we  are 
also  unquestionably  descended.  There  was 
no  place  in  Scotland  which,  until  half  a 
century  ago,  was  so  rich  in  these  monuments 
as  Machrie  Moor. 

Undoubtedly,  then,  Arran  was  the  battle- 
ground during  the  Norse  period,  when  its 
exposed  position,  and  the  considerable  civilisa- 
tion it  had  attained  owing  to  this  close  contact 
with  the  Dalriadic  kingdom  for  some  five 
hundred  years,  made  it  a  rich  prey  for  the 
hungry  subjects  of  Harald.  It  is,  however,  a 
mistake  to  assume,  as  has  been  done,  that  be- 
cause the  Norsemen  came  here  they  settled 
and  so  left  their  blood  behind  them.  It  was 


ARRAN 

specially  agreed  at  the  time  of  the  cession  of 
the  island  by  Magnus  in  1265  that  such 
subjects  of  Norway  as  wished  to  leave  the 
Hebrides  should  have  liberty  to  do  so,  with 
all  their  effects.  And  at  other  periods  the 
Norsemen  probably  left,  owing  to  the  pressure 
of  the  Gaels  of  Somerled.  It  has  been 
stated  that  the  Norse  type  of  face  and  skull 
is  common  in  the  island.  To  me  it  seems 
to  be  distinctly  rare.  The  familiar  Scottish 
tall  red  type  is  seen,  but  far  commoner  is  the 
dark,  long-headed,  blue-grey  and  brown- 
eyed  type,  and  the  children  are  notably 
darker  haired  than  in  Kintyre.  In  my 
observation,  the  Arran  man  is  much 
darker  than  the  Norseman  or  the  main- 
land Scotsman,  and  distinctly  longer-headed 
than  the  mesaticephalic  Norse.  He  is  prob- 
ably rather  a  blend  between  the  aboriginal, 
dark,  long-headed  type  of  the  early  pre- 
historic races  whose  unearthed  skulls  his  own 
head  so  greatly  resembles,  and  the  red  and 
fair  Scottish  types  who  came  and  conquered  at 
a  later  date,  and  who  spoke  the  Keltic  tongue. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose,  as  those  who  are 


THE  EDGE  OF  THE  SHISKEN  MOOR 

From  a  painting  by 
/.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  121 

urging  so  vigorously  the  claims  of  the  Norse 
are  in  danger  of  doing,  that  all  the  fair  races 
of  the  world  hailed  originally  from  Norway  ! 

The  Norwegian  of  to-day  is  one  of  the 
most  trusty  and  respectable  men  in  Europe, 
and  his  influence  is  excellent,  but  his  ancestors 
were  the  very  opposite.  Their  influence  was 
amongst  the  worst,  the  least  fruitful  of  good 
that  Europe  has  known,  and  the  Norseman 
has  himself,  until  the  past  twenty  years,  been 
glad  to  forget  them  and  give  his  sons  and 
daughters  names  of  German  origin  instead 
of  the  old  names  of  the  Sagas. 

The  attacks  of  the  Scandinavian  races, 
we  are  told,  from  the  time  of  the  half- 
mythical  Ragnar  Lodbrog  in  856,  occurred 
with  "fearful  frequency."  They  were  not, 
of  course,  confined  to  the  West  of  Scotland  ; 
England,  Ireland,  Italy,  Germany,  and 
Russia  were  all  sufferers.  The  Swedes 
directed  their  attacks  mostly  to  Russia,  the 
Danes  to  England,  and  the  "  Norroway  men," 
with  their  smaller  numbers  and  consequent 
inability  to  march  inland  and  conquer  a 
hostile  country,  aimed  at  Scotland.  Where 


122  ARRAN 

innumerable  water-ways  and  lochs  made 
it  easy  for  them  to  keep  close  under  the 
protection  of  their  ships,  and  enabled  them 
to  move  with  the  utmost  speed  attainable 
in  those  days,  speed  which  was  utterly  im- 
possible for  land  troops  in  a  mountainous 
region  like  Scotland. 

The  Rev.  George  Henderson,  of  Glasgow, 
and  others  have  endeavoured  to  show  that 
the  Norsemen  were  able  to  make  consider- 
able settlements ;  but,  keeping  in  mind  the 
smallness  of  the  population  of  their  country, 
the  heavy  death-roll  amongst  a  people  whose 
hands  were  against  all  the  world,  and  the 
fact  that  their  very  occupation  necessitated 
their  absence  on  the  sea,  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  they  settled  in  a  real  sense  or  in 
any  numbers.  They  probably  owed  their 
strength  and  the  terror  of  their  name,  as  I 
have  already  suggested,  to  their  power  of 
concentration,  which  enabled  them  to  deal 
with  any  great  coalition  in  overwhelming 
force,  rather  than  to  their  actual  settlements. 
So  that  the  dread  of  their  power  brought 
security  to  those  few  whom  they  could  spare 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  123 

to  garrison  their  forts  or  towers  along  the  bays 
and  harbours  in  which  they  sheltered  from 
the  storms,  or  collected  their  spoils.  There 
seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  they  acted  as 
overlords  in  this  manner,  and,  inducing  the 
natives  to  join  them,  they  often  became  allies 
and  allowed  the  native  chiefs  to  remain  in 
power,  as  is  shown  by  records,  for  example,  in 
the  case  of  Galloway. 

The  Gaels,  who  joined  forces  in  this  way 
with  them,  are  believed  to  be  referred  to  in  the 
famous  name  of  Gallgall,  or  Stranger  Gael, 
given  to  the  people  of  the  Southern  Isles  by 
the  Irish  annalists  in  the  ninth  century,  or 
earlier  possibly.  But  this  is  by  no  means 
certain,  for  any  Gael  separated  from  Ireland 
would  be  a  stranger  Gael.  A  tribe  speaking 
their  Gaelic  with  a  slightly  different  accent  or 
dialect  would  be  marked  men,  just  as  an 
Aberdonian  in  the  Clyde  district,  or  a 
Lancastrian  is  in  London  to-day.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  Gaels 
of  any  kind  who  had  been  Christians  for 
some  four  hundred  years  would  join  with  the 
heathen  Norse  in  sacking  the  island  of  lona, 


124  ARRAN 

which  was  invaded  and  devastated  and  its 
monks  slain  by  them,  according  to  the  annals 
of  Ulster,  in  the  year  794.  The  names  of 
the  Gall  Gael  chiefs  given  from  time  to 
time  are  indisputably  Gaelic,  and  the  alterna- 
tive is  to  suppose  they  had  reverted  to 
paganism  under  the  teaching  of  their  over- 
lords and  conquerors.  Probably  not  till  we 
awaken  to  the  importance  of  a  thorough 
investigation  of  the  vast  number  of  historical 
documents  which  are  still  preserved  in 
Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales  will  we  be  able 
to  disentangle  the  extraordinary  medley  of 
fact  and  myth  and  fable  and  utter  misconcep- 
tion which  now  makes  up  this  part  of  our 
early  history. 

Assuredly  we  have  no  cause  to  boast  of 
the  Norsemen  who  have  been  so  long  and  so 
foolishly  idolised  in  England  and  Scotland. 
Their  doings  have  been  much  exaggerated ; 
they  left  us  little  or  nothing  in  exchange  for 
the  civilisation  they  destroyed.  As  Mr.  A.  H. 
Johnson  says:  "The  Northmen  never  seem 
to  have  been  original,  never  to  have  invented 
anything ;  rather  they  readily  assumed  the 


ARRAN  IN  THE  VIKING  AGE  125 

language,  religion,  ideas  of  their  adopted 
country,  and  soon  became  absorbed  in  the 
society  around  them.  This  will  be  found  to 
be  invariably  the  case,  except  with  regard  to 
Iceland,  where  the  previous  occupation  was 
too  insignificant  to  affect  the  new  settlers. 
In  Russia  they  became  Russians  ;  in  France, 
Frenchmen ;  in  Italy,  Italians ;  in  England, 
twice  over  Englishmen,  first  in  the  case  of 
the  Danes,  and  secondly  in  that  of  the  later 
Normans.  Everywhere  they  became  fused 
in  the  surrounding  nationality.  ..."  Again 
he  says,  "  They  borrow  everything  and  make 
it  their  own." 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  ARRAN  MEN  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF 
BRUNANBURH 

THE    FLEET    IN    LAMLASH    BAY 

OF  great  interest  is  the  fact  that  the 
Sudreyar,  as  the  men  of  Arran  and  the  rest 
of  the  Southern  Hebrides  were  called  by 
the  Norse,  joined  the  King  of  Alban,  Con- 
stantine  in.,  in  his  great  battle  with  the 
Saxons  under  the  famous  King  Athelstane  in 
937  A.D.  The  leader  of  the  islanders  was 
Anlaf,  or  Aulaf,  king  of  the  Gall  Gael.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  poem,  "  The  Battle  of  Brunan- 
burh,"and  the  Chroniclers tellhowConstantine, 
after  gathering  his  forces  in  Lamlash  Bay,  met 
the  forces  of  Athelstane  in  the  river  Humber  ; 
but  from  Lamlash  to  the  Humber  is  a  far  cry 
when  the  journey  is  made  by  slow  galleys,  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH       127 

there  is  no  doubt  that  the  battle  really  took 
place  somewhere  in  Cumberland  or  Wales  or 
Lancashire,  sites  having  been  suggested  in 
all  these  places.  The  defeat  of  Constantine 
seems  to  have  been  complete.  The  poem 
describing  the  fight  reaches  the  high  water- 
mark of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  It  has  spirit, 
and  the  graphic  quality  springing  from  im- 
aginative power,  a  quality  which  is  generally 
lacking  in  the  literature  of  the  Saxons.  The 
description  of  Constantine,  "  the  old  warrior," 
helped  by  the  characteristic  repetitions,  rises 
by  a  sort  of  cumulative  process  to  the 
tremendous  crescendo  note  reached  in  the 
three  concluding  lines  of  the  following 
passage  : — 

"  So  there  eke  the  sage  Constantine, 
hoary  warrior,  came  by  flight  to  his  country  north. 
He  had  no  cause  to  exult  in  the  meeting  of  swords. 

The  hero,  grizzly-haired,  had  no  cause  to  boast 

of  the  bill-clashing,  the  old  deceiver  : 

nor  Anlaf  the  more,  with  the  remnant  of  their  armies  ; 

they  had  no  cause  to  boast  that  they  in  war's  works 

the  better  men  were  in  the  battle  stead, 

at  the  conflict  of  banners,  at  the  meeting  of  spears, 

at  the  concourse  of  men,  at  the  traffic  of  weapons  ; 

when  they  on  the  slaughter  field 

with  Edward's  offspring  played." 


128  ARRAN 

The  references  to  the  islanders  who  took  so 
prominent  a  part  in  the  battle  are  several — 

"  The  foe  they  crushed,  the  Scottish  people  ; 
and  the  ship-pirates,  death-doomed,  fell." 

And  again — 

"  There  was  made  flee  the  North-men's  chieftain." 

My  quotation  is  from  Thrupp's  excellent 
translation. 

The  "  Scottish  people  "  are,  of  course,  the 
Irish  under  Anlaf,  who  was  also  the  leader  of 
the  men  from  Orkney  and  the  north,  and  of 
the  Hebrid  Islanders,  the  Gall  Gael,  or  "sea- 
pirates." 

The  battle  was  not,  as  has  been  supposed, 
a  race  conflict,  as  Mr.  York  Powell  points  out. 
"The  Annals  of  Clonmacnois"  say  that  the 
Sudreyar  were  led  by  their  king  Gealachan, 
and  the  conflict  was  between  them  allied 
with  the  Scots  under  Anlaf,  the  Cumbrians, 
and  Vikings  of  the  west,  and  Athelstane. 

Later  in  the  same  century  Arran  and  the 
rest  of  the  Sudereys  once  more  were  captured 
and  incorporated  in  the  Orcadian  earldom  by 
Sigurd,  who  left  his  brother  Gilli  as  his  captain ; 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH       129 

but  Gilli  was  soon  overthrown  by  Coinneach, 
brother  of  the  King  of  Man. 

At  the  great  battle  of  Clontarf,  of  which  the 
Irish  annalists  make  so  much,  the  men  of  the 
South  Isles  were  also  present ;  we  are  told 
that  there  was  an  "  immense  army  from  Innis- 
gall,"  and  their  king  Aulaf,  or  Anlaf,  was 
amongst  the  many  kings  and  great  warriors 
slain  in  this  fight,  which  broke  for  ever 
the  dominion  of  the  Scandinavian  races  in 
Ireland.  The  men  of  the  South  Isles,  being 
still  under  their  Norse  allies,  fought  on  the 
side  of  the  foreigners  against  their  Scoto- 
Irish  kinsmen. 

Thorfin,  the  famous  Jarl  of  Orkney,  was  a 
little  later  able  to  overawe  Scotland,  even  if 
he  did  not  actually  conquer  it,  so  that  only 
Strathclyde,  Fife,  and  the  Lothians  were  able 
to  keep  him  out.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that,  as  the  late  Mr.  York  Powell  says,  his 
dominion  meant  little  more  than  that  he  took 
tribute  and  was  recognised  as  overlord. 
Before  his  death  in  1074  Thorfinn  visited 
Rome,  and  adopted  the  Christian  faith.  On 
his  death  the  mixed  Norsemen  or  Danes  of 
9 


i3o  ARRAN 

Ireland  revolted  and  invaded  the  coasts 
of  Alban,  and  Diarmid  MacMaelnambo  of 
Dublin  came  down  upon  the  Hebrides  and 
made  himself  their  king.  His  successor, 
Fingal  MacGodred,  was  defeated  by  Godred 
Crovan,  who  also  made  himself  king  of  Dublin. 
Godred  had  a  curiously  chequered  history,  and 
is  claimed  by  Professor  Gollancz  as  the 
original  of  Shakespeare's  Hamlet. 


MAGNUS    BAREFOOT 

Magnus  Barefoot,  or  Bareleg,  was  one  of 
the  most  picturesque  of  all  the  many  Norse- 
men who  vexed  the  much-harried  Hebrides, 
and  he  is  the  only  one  who  lives  to-day  in 
legends  still  current  amongst  the  people.  The 
Norwegians  had  recently  suffered  utter  defeat 
at  the  famous  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge  from 
the  Saxons  under  Harold,  who  were  destined 
to  supersede  them  as  masters  of  the  sea,  and 
Magnus,  who  became  king,  entered  into  a 
treaty  with  Malcolm  Canmore  of  Alban  by 
which  all  the  islands  (which  did  not,  by  the 
way,  belong  to  Malcolm)  were  ceded  to 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH       131 

Norway.  Magnus  soon  gave  the  islanders  a 
taste  of  his  quality,  he  was  no  mean  soldier, 
and  became  their  master. 

Kintyre  has  always  been  included  in  the 
Hebrides  ;  the  capital  of  the  old  Dalriadic 
kingdom,  its  civilisation  had  been  far  in 
advance  of  the  neighbouring  islands,  and  its 
strategical  position  had  rendered  it  of  supreme 
importance.  It  was,  therefore,  always  the 
most  prized  possession  :  under  the  treaty  with 
Malcolm  or  Edgar  it  fell  naturally  to  Magnus, 
but  a  legend  which  has  done  much  to  keep 
Magnus's  name  alive  was  invented,  to  the 
effect  that,  in  order  to  make  it  rank  amongst 
the  islands  ceded  to  him,  he  cheated  Edgar 
by  drawing  his  galleys  over  the  narrow  neck 
of  land  which  connects  it  with  the  mainland 
of  Argyll  at  Loch  Tarbert.  This  was  on 
Magnus's  second  visit  in  the  year  1098.  It 
was,  of  course,  quite  a  common  thing  to  draw 
the  light-built  galleys  of  the  time  across  spits 
of  land  which  divided  loch  from  loch  or  sea 
from  sea.  It  is  said  by  Fordun  that  Donald 
Bane,  the  brother  of  Malcolm,  was  helped  in 
his  seizure  of  the  throne  of  Scotland  by 


132  ARRAN 

Magnus,  and  that  as  a  reward  he  ceded  the 
islands  to  him,  and  it  is  possible  that  this  is 
the  correct  story.  It  is  not  of  much  import- 
ance to  this  narrative,  but  it  is  certain  that 
Malcolm  Canmore,  that  doughty  warrior,  was 
slain  during  his  invasion  of  England  in  1093, 
the  year  of  Magnus's  first  visit  to  the  Hebrides, 
and  of  Donald  Bane's  seizure  of  his  brother's 
throne. 

Magnus  it  waswho,  on  his  return  toNorway, 
introduced  the  Highland  dress  amongst  his 
people  .  .  .  "the  king  and  his  followers," 
according  to  the  Saga  of  the  famous  Icelander, 
Sturleson,  "  went  about  the  streets  with  bare 
legs,  and  wore  short  coats  and  cloaks."  It 
was  from  this  incident  that  the  king  received 
his  name  of  "  Barefoot,"  so  says  Worsaae. 

The  terror  of  the  second  visit  of  Magnus 
in  1098  still  survives  in  the  legends  of  the 
island  of  Lewis,  for  the  Lewis  men,  having 
been  infamously  used  by  his  representative  in 
the  island,  rose  and  slew  him  and  the  loose  and 
dissolute  crowd  by  whom  he  was  supported. 
Magnus  thereupon  swept  down  upon  the 
Lewis  and  burnt  and  slew  without  mercy,  as 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH       133 

was  his  usual  way  on  these  occasions,  only 
this  seems  to  have  been  a  peculiarly  terrible 
and  searching  visitation.  He  passed  on  to 
the  Sudereys,  and  utterly  crushed  out  any 
sparks  of  revolt  he  could  find,  and  there  he 
spent  the  winter,  and  walked  about  amongst 
the  natives  clad  in  their  own  picturesque  and 
well-loved  costume.  It  is  said  that  the  kilt 
was  a  common  dress  in  Norway  for  a  century 
after  his  time. 

The  death  of  Magnus  brought  back  to  the 
throne  of  the  South  Isles  the  son  of  Godred 
Crovan,  Lagman,  who  after  a  few  years  went 
on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  and 
Donald  MacFad,  of  the  Irish  Scots,  was  made 
governor,  until  Olave,  the  remaining  son  of 
Godred  Crovan,  came  to  manhood.  This 
Olave,  King  of  Man  and  the  Isles,  grew  to 
be  a  person  of  some  note.  He  had  been  sent 
to  the  Court  of  William  Rufus  and  Henry  of 
England  for  his  education,  and  proved  a  wise 
and  diplomatic  ruler.  His  son,  Godred  the 
Black,  was  a  tyrant,  whose  raids  upon  the 
coasts  around  his  home  aroused  the  men  of 
Morvern,  and  brought  forth  the  man  who  was 


134  ARRAN 

to  make  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  Norse 
power  on  the  western  coast.  This  was  Som- 
hairle,  translated  into  Norse  as  "  Somerled  "  ; 
his  father  Gillibride  was  known  as  Gillibride 
nan  Uaimh,  or  Gillibride  of  the  Cave,  his  sister 
had  married  a  daughter  of  King  Harold  of 
Norway.  The  legend  goes  that  the  old  chief 
was  driven  by  the  oppression  of  the  Norse- 
men to  seek  shelter  in  a  cave  of  Morvern,  for 
the  invaders  held  not  only  the  isles  but 
Lochaber  and  great  part  of  Argyll.  Skene 
says  that  Gillibride  was  of  purely  Gaelic  origin, 
and  was  the  great-grandson  of  Imergi,  one  of 
two  kings  Maelbethad  and  Imergi,  mentioned 
by  the  Saxon  Chronicle  as  having  submitted 
to  King  Knut  in  1031.  It  seems  probable 
that  they  were  representatives  of  the  old  kings 
of  Dalriada.  If  this  were  so,  it  would  be  easy 
to  understand  that  Gillibride  was  then  in 
hiding,  and  that  his  young  son  should  lead  the 
men  of  Morvern  against  the  men  of  Olave. 
According  to  the  tradition,  his  first  success 
was  in  conducting  the  clan  MacAongais  or 
Maclnnes  out  of  the  field  in  a  masterly 
manner,  after  the  utter  defeat  of  the  Argyll- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH       135 

shire  men.  The  Maclnneses,  it  is  interesting 
to  remember,  as  confirmation  of  this  old  tradi- 
tion, claim  descent  from  Somerled's  brother 
Auradan.*  Encouraged  by  the  discovery  of 
so  skilful  a  leader,  the  men  of  Morvern 
decided  to  try  once  again  to  throw  off  the 
Norse  yoke,  and  appointed  Somhairle  their 
captain. 

*  The  Clan  Donald,  by  Rev.  A.  and  J.  Macdonald  ;  also 
Skene. 


CHAPTER   XV 

SOMERLED,  THE  HAMMER  OF  THE 
NORSEMEN 

IF  Edward  i.  was,  as  he  himself  said,  the 
hammer  of  the  Scots,  Somerled  was  certainly 
the  hammer  of  the  Norsemen.  Justice  has 
hardly  yet  been  done  to  the  great  work  he 
did  in  putting  an  end  to  the  encroachments 
of  the  Norsemen  on  the  mainland  of 
Scotland,  and  in  expelling  them  from  Loch- 
aber  and  Argyll,  and  secondly  in  making  the 
conquest  of  the  isles  of  Arran  and  Bute  by 
David,  who  followed  his  lead,  permanent  and 
successful.  His  alliance  with  the  daughter 
of  the  Norse  leader  Olave,  king  of  the  Isles, 
was  another  instance  of  the  statesmanlike 
policy  of  the  greatest  of  the  old  Highland 
chiefs.  He  alone  it  was  who  made  it 

possible  for  the  later  Scottish  kings  to  obtain 

136 


DRUMADOON  BAY 

From  a  fainting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


THE  HAMMER  OF  THE  NORSEMEN     137 

a  foothold  in  the  west,  where  danger  had 
threatened  for  so  many  centuries  from  the 
overwhelming  sea  power  of  Norway.  His 
conquests  made  in  Argyll,  on  the  mainland, 
far  more  than  the  desultory  victories  of  the 
Scottish  kings,  made  a  united  Scotland 
possible.  The  help  afforded  to  Bruce  by 
Somerled's  grandson,  Angus  Oigof  Kintyre,in 
the  darkest  hour  of  his  fortunes,  again,  made 
it  possible  for  that  king,  with  a  fuller  know- 
ledge and  wider  perspective  than  were  pos- 
sible to  Somerled,  to  build  permanently  upon 
these  great  beginnings.  As  the  authors  of 
The  History  of  the  Clan  Donald  say — 

"  Somerled  was  more  than  a  warrior.  He 
possessed  not  only  the  courage  and  dash 
which  are  associated  with  the  Celtic  char- 
acter ;  he  had  the  organising  brain,  the 
fertile  resource,  the  art  not  only  of  winning 
battles,  but  of  turning  them  to  account ;  that 
sovereign  faculty  of  commanding  the  respect 
and  allegiance  of  men  which  marks  the  true 
king.  Without  the  possession  of  this  im- 
perial capacity  he  could  never,  in  the  face  of 
such  tremendous  odds,  have  wrested  the 


138  ARRAN 

sovereignty  of  the  Gael  from  his  hereditary 
foes,  and  handed  it  to  the  Clan  Cholla  to  be 
their  inheritance  for  hundreds  of  years.  He 
was  the  instrument  by  which  the  position, 
the  power,  the  language  of  the  Gael  were 
saved  from  being  overwhelmed  by  Teutonic 
influence,  and  Celtic  culture  and  tradition 
received  a  new  lease  of  life.  He  founded  a 
family  which  played  no  ignoble  part  in 
Scottish  history.  If  our  faith  in  the  principle 
of  heredity  is  sometimes  shaken  by  degener- 
ate sons  of  noble  sires,  when  the  last  links  of 
a  line  of  long  ago  prove  unworthy  heirs  of  a 
great  past,  our  faith  is  confirmed  in  it  by  the 
line  of  Princes  that  sat  upon  the  Island 
throne,  who  as  a  race  were  stamped  with  the 
heroic  qualities  which  characterised  the  son 
of  Gillibride.  Somerled's  life  struggle  had 
been  with  the  power  of  the  Norseman,  whose 
sun  in  the  Isles  he  saw  on  the  eve  of  setting. 
But  he  met  his  tragic  fate  in  conflict  with 
another  and  more  formidable  set  of  forces. 
This  was  the  contest  which  Somerled  be- 
queathed as  a  legacy  to  his  successors.  It 
was  theirs  to  be  the  leading  spirits  in  the 


THE  HAMMER  OF  THE  NORSEMEN     139 

resistance  of  the  Gaelic  race,  language,  and 
social  life,  to  the  new  and  advancing  order 
which  was  already  moulding  into  an  organic 
unity  the  various  nationalities  of  Scotland — 
the  ever-increasing,  ever-extending  power  of 
feudal  institutions." 

According  to  Hugh  Macdonald's  MS. 
Somerled  was  a  "  well- tempered  man,  in  body 
shapely,  of  a  fair  piercing  eye,  of  middle 
stature,  and  of  quick  discernment."  His 
leadership  was  entirely  successful,  and  his 
victory  was,  as  Gregory  puts  it,  "the  begin- 
ning of  the  ruin  of  the  Norse  Kingdom  of 
the  Isles."  The  Gaels  from  all  parts  crowded 
to  his  banner,  and  he  wrested  Argyll  and 
Lochaber  from  the  grip  of  the  Norsemen. 
And  there,  in  this  land  of  grey  hills  and  green 
waters,  he  "  made  a  realm  and  reigned." 

In  the  Book  of  Ballymote  Somhairle's 
pedigree  is  given  as  "  Somerled,  son  of  Gille- 
brigde,  son  of  Gilliadamnain,  son  of  Solaimh, 
son  of  Imergi."  But  the  Book  of  Clanranald 
takes  us  back  several  steps  further.  It  gives 
"  Somerled,  son  of  Giollabride,  son  of  Giollia- 
damnain,  son  of  Solomh,  son  of  Mearghach 


140  ARRAN 

or  Imergi,  son  of  Suibhne,  son  of  Niallghus, 
son  of  Gothfruigh,  son  of  Fearghus,  of  the 
reign  of  Kenneth  MacAlpin." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  success  of 
Somerled  in  clearing  the  Norsemen  out  of 
"  the  western  side  of  Alban,  except  the 
islands  of  the  Finlochlann,  called  Innisgall," 
as  the  Book  of  Clanranald  puts  it,  relieved 
the  anxieties  of  the  Scottish  King  David, 
who  was  unable  to  cope  with  the  great  power 
of  the  Norwegians  on  his  coasts,  and  doubtless 
felt  that  their  encroachments  on  the  mainland 
were  a  still  more  serious  menace  to  his  king- 
dom. He,  however,  took  heart  and  followed 
Somerled's  victory  by  capturing  from  the 
Norsemen  the  islands  of  Arran  and  Bute  in 
1135,  some  two  years  later.  These  he  conferred 
upon  the  victorious  Somhairle,  and  allowed  him 
to  annex  them  to  the  "  Kingdom  of  Argyll," 
of  which  he  was,  it  is  generally  admitted,  the 
hereditary  king  or  chief.  By  this  statesman- 
like policy  of  David  the  kingdom  of  the 
Southern  Hebrides  became  a  kind  of  buffer 
state  between  the  kingdom  of  Alban  and  the 
Norse  Vikings  of  the  Northern  or  Outer 


THE  HAMMER  OF  THE  NORSEMEN     141 

Hebrides  and  Orkney.  It  also  healed  the  old 
quarrel  between  the  descendants  of  Malcolm, 
who  had  made  alliance  with  Magnus  Bare- 
foot, that  arch  enemy  of  the  Innse  Gall,  and 
at  the  same  time  split  any  minor  alliances 
that  might  have  existed  between  the  Gaels 
and  the  Norse  Vikings. 

Somerled  further  strengthened  his  hold  on 
the  Isles,  about  the  year  1140,  by  marrying 
Ragnhilda,  the  daughter  of  Olave  the  Red, 
and  sister  of  Godred,  whose  harsh  and  op- 
pressive rule  had  been  the  cause  of  the  wide- 
spread revolt  in  which  Somhairle  had  found 
his  great  opportunity.  Godred  soon  saw 
that  his  enemy  was  like  to  crush  him  out  of 
the  rest  of  the  Hebrides,  for  Somerled  in 
1156  joined  with  Thorfinn,  a  Manx  chief,  in 
a  plot  to  place  Dugall,  a  mere  child,  son  of 
Somerled  and  Ragnhilda,  on  the  throne  of 
the  Isles.  Godred  heard  of  the  plot,  and 
sailed  from  Man  with  a  fleet  to  meet  Somer- 
led, who  with  eighty  ships  was  waiting  for 
him.  A  terrific  battle  took  place,  which,  at 
the  end  of  a  long  day,  found  the  combatants 
still  determined  and  unbeaten.  Having 


i42  ARRAN 

tasted  the  quality  of  his  great  rival,  Godred 
was  glad  to  make  terms  by  which  all  the 
islands  south  of  the  point  of  Ardnamurchan, 
of  course  including  Kintyre,  always  regarded 
as  an  island,  were  ceded  to  Somerled,  or 
rather  to  his  son  Dugall ;  while  Godred  kept 
for  himself  Man,  Skye,  Coll,  Tiree,  and  the 
Long  Island.  Mr.  Dugald  Mitchell  suggests 
that  a  probable  result  of  this  arrangement 
was  an  exodus  of  the  purely  Norse  popula- 
tion from  the  south  islands,  and  of  the  purely 
Keltic  portion  of  the  population  of  the 
northern  islands,  which  remained  under 
Norwegian  rule  till  a  hundred  years  later. 
In  1156  there  seems  to  have  been  another 
quarrel  between  Godred  and  Somerled,  who 
invaded  Man  with  his  fleet  and  added  it  to  his 
dominions.  Godred  fled  to  Norway,  where  he 
remained  till Somerled'sdeath eight  yearslater. 
In  1159  the  peace  was  made  between 
the  King  of  Scotland  and  Somerled,  which 
resulted  in  the  drawing  up  of  the  famous 
treaty  of  that  date,  held  to  be  of  so  much  im- 
portance that  it  formed  an  epoch  for  the  dating 
of  Scottish  charters. 


THE  HAMMER  OF  THE  NORSEMEN     143 

In  1164  Somerled  had  again  fallen  out 
with  the  Scottish  monarch,  for  whose  king- 
dom he  had  done  so  much.  His  object  was, 
it  is  said,  to  make  himself  king  of  all  Scot- 
land. Be  this  as  it  may,  he  sailed  up  the 
Clyde  with  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
ships  and  a  force  of  Scots  from  Ireland.  He 
landed,  according  to  tradition,  at  Renfrew,  and 
Gregory  thinks  the  old  story  is  correct  which 
states  that  he  was  there  murdered  in  his  tent 
by  one  of  his  own  followers  in  whom  he 
placed  confidence.  His  son  Gillecallum  was 
also  slain,  and  his  men  returned  to  the  Isles. 
His  body  was  taken  to  Saddell,  in  Kintyre, 
where  his  son  Ragnald  built  the  monastery  of 
which  the  remains  still  stand,  and  endowed 
it  with  lands  at  Boltefean,  in  Kintyre,  and 
Shisken  in  Arran. 

So  died  the  man  who  preserved  the  iden- 
tity of  the  Gaels  in  the  western  Highlands 
and  the  islands  of  Innse  Gall,  and  who  put  a 
stop  for  ever  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
Norwegians  on  the  mainland  of  Scotland. 
For,  though  there  were  subsequent  attacks 
till  the  time  of  Alexander  in.,  no  acre  of 


144  ARRAN 

Scottish  ground  ever  again  knew  a  Nor- 
wegian owner,  and  no  foothold  of  any  perma- 
nence was  again  obtained  even  amongst  the 
islands.  Only  the  Orkneys  and  Shetlands, 
which  never  had  at  any  time  belonged  to  the 
Scottish  kings,  remained  under  Norse  rule 
till  their  cession  to  Scotland  in  1564. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
HOW  KING  HAKON  FOUGHT  AT  LARGS 

THERE  are  few  direct  references  to  Arran  in 
the  chronicles  up  to  this  time,  but  it  was 
passing  for  all  that  through  the  heart  of  the 
fire  in  those  terrible  years.  And,  judging  from 
its  position  in  the  very  midst  of  the  great 
arena  of  the  fight,  and  the  extraordinary 
number  of  its  historical  remains  and  monu- 
ments, it  was  saturated  with  the  blood  of  the 
fallen,  Norseman  and  Gael.  After  the  death 
of  Somerled  his  possessions  in  the  Isles  were 
divided  between  his  three  sons  by  Ragnhilda 
— Mull,  Coll  and  Tiree,  and  Jura  went  to 
Dugall ;  Isla  and  Kintyre  to  Reginald ;  and 
Bute  to  Angus.  Arran  is  supposed  to  have 
been  divided  between  Angus  and  Reginald. 
Somerled's  possessions  on  the  mainland  were 


10 


146  ARRAN 

divided  between  his  sons  by  his  former 
marriage. 

On  the  death  of  Reginald,  son  of  Somer- 
led,  his  possessions  in  Argyll  and  the  Isles 
went  to  his  eldest  son  Donald,  while  his 
younger  son  Ruari  got  Bute  and  Arran  and 
the  extensive  district  of  Garmoran  on  the 
mainland.  The  territory  given  to  his  son 
Angus  by  Somerled  had  been  seized  by 
Reginald,  and  Angus  and  his  three  sons  were 
slain  in  the  quarrel. 

James,  one  of  the  sons  of  Angus,  had  left  a 
daughter,  Jane,  who  had  married  Alexander, 
fifth  High  Steward  of  Scotland,  who  seems 
to  have  seized  the  coveted  island  of  Bute  on 
his  wife's  behalf  on  the  death  of  Angus. 
This  was  about  the  year  1165:  it  was  the 
beginning  of  the  long  connection  of  the 
Stewarts  with  Bute.  From  it  many  im- 
portant results  grew,  for  it  was  the  first  real 
footing  of  the  Scottish  royal  house  in  the 
islands. 

Alexander  n.,  a  great  king,  in  1236  sent 
to  King  Hakon  of  Norway  to  ask  whether 
he  would  give  up  his  possessions  in  the 


KING  HAKON  AT  LARGS  147 

Hebrides,  which  it  was  pretended  Magnus 
Barefoot  had  taken  from  Malcolm,  though 
Malcolm  had  never  any  title  to  them.  To 
this  Hakon  replied  with  perfect  truth,  that  the 
King  of  Scotland  had  no  right  in  the  islands 
when  they  were  won  by  Magnus  from  God- 
red  Crovan.  Alexander  then  offered  to  buy 
the  islands.  This  offer  Hakon  declined. 
Alexander  made  other  attempts  without  avail, 
till  the  year  1249,  when,  according  to  the 
"  Saga  of  King  Hakon,"  he  collected  his 
forces  and  made  it  manifest  "...  that  he 
would  not  desist  till  he  had  placed  his  stan- 
dard on  the  cliffs  of  Thurso,  and  had  reduced 
under  his  own  rule  all  the  provinces  which 
the  Norse  king  held  westward  of  the  German 
ocean."  Alexander  sailed  up  the  west  coast 
and  sought  the  help  of  Eogan  (Ewan),  great- 
grandson  of  Somerled,  who,  of  course, 
held  his  lands,  like  the  other  island  lords, 
from  the  King  of  Norway,  while  any  posses- 
sions they  had  on  the  mainland  were  held 
of  the  King  of  Scotland.  Eogan  refused  to 
join  Alexander,  and  the  king  sailed  up  as  far 
as  the  island  of  Kerrera,  opposite  the  town  of 


148  ARRAN 

Oban,  and  was  there  seized  with  an  illness 
from  which  he  died.  It  was  not  till  1262 
that  the  new  king,  Alexander  in.,  after 
attempting  to  enter  into  negotiations  with 
King  Hakon,  attacked  the  northern  islands, 
then  held  by  Roderick  MacSomerled  and 
his  sons  Dugall  and  Allan,  who  sent  word 
to  the  Norse  king  that  Alexander  purposed  to 
subdue  all  the  Hebrides  if  life  were  granted 
him.  King  Hakon  sailed  for  the  southern 
isles  with  "a  mighty  and  splendid  armament 
of  upwards  of  120  vessels,"  including  the 
great  ship  which  the  "  Saga  of  King  Hakon  " 
tells  us  had  been  specially  built  at  Bergen. 
It  had  twenty-seven  banks  of  oars,  and  was 
"ornamented  with  heads  and  necks  of 
dragons  overlaid  with  gold." 

King  Dugall,  we  are  told,  and  Magnus, 
King  of  Man,  and  many  others  from  the  Isles 
joined  him,  but  Angus  Mor,  chief  of  the  whole 
clan  Donald,  and  lord  of  I  slay  and  South 
Kintyre,  who  now  held  of  the  Scottish  crown, 
refused,  while  Bute  was  of  course  held  by  the 
Steward  in  right  of  Jane,  Nic  Somhairle. 
King  Eogan,  of  the  house  of  Dougal  of  Lorn, 


KING  HAKON  AT  LARGS  149 

also  visited  Hakon,  and  explained  that  as  he 
held  more  land  of  the  King  of  Scots  than  of 
the  King  of  Norway  he  could  not  follow  him. 
Hakon  then  took  Bute  and  gave  it  to  Ruari, 
son  of  Reginald,  who  claimed  it. 

So  the  honours  were  with  the  Nor- 
wegian king  when  he  arrived  with  his  great 
fleet  in  Lamlash  Bay  in  the  middle  of 
August.  Alexander  then  commenced  a 
waiting  game,  as  is  shown  by  the  "  Hakon 
Saga,"  in  the  hope  of  detaining  the  Nor- 
wegian fleet  till  the  bad  weather  set  in,  for 
the  Norse  and  the  Vikings  generally  were 
"summer  sailors,"  and  returned  to  their 
own  lands  in  the  winter  season.  Long 
negotiations  went  on.  Alexander  saw  clearly 
his  own  weakness,  for  he  seems  to  have  been 
willing  to  whittle  down  his  grand  claim  to 
the  whole  Hebrides  to  a  demand  for  Arran, 
Bute,  and  the  Cumbraes,  but  these  he  would 
in  no  wise  part  with.  Having  no  fleet, 
Alexander  waited  on  shore  at  Largs  with 
his  army. 

Hakon  was  no  savage  Viking,  but  a  wise 
and  civilised  ruler,  who  granted  protection  to 


150  ARRAN 

the  various  abbeys  round  the  scene  of 
hostilities,  and  did  things  generally  on  a  grand 
and  liberal  scale.  Time  had  wrought  great 
changes,  and  the  southern  isles  were  popu- 
lous and  busy  and  prosperous  once  more,  as 
they  had  been  before  the  Norse  incursions. 

Still  the  truce  continued,  still  Alexander 
played  the  Fabian  part,  and  still  the  Norse 
king  showed  a  desire  to  come  to  terms. 
Hakon's  patience  at  last  gave  way,  and  at  the 
end  of  September  he  marshalled  his  great  fleet 
opposite  the  village  of  Largs,  and  sent  sixty 
of  his  vessels  up  Loch  Long,  from  which  the 
leaders,  the  King  of  Man,  and  Allan,  brother 
of  King  Dugall,  caused  them  to  be  drawn  over 
the  narrow  neck  of  land  at  Tarbert  into  Loch 
Lomond.  In  the  grandiloquent  words  of 
Snorro  Sturleson,  "  the  pursuing,  shielded 
warriors  of  the  thrower  of  the  whizzing  spear 
drew  their  boats  across  the  broad  isthmus. 
Our  fearless  troops,  the  exactors  of  contribu- 
tion, with  flaming  brands  wasted  the  popu- 
lous islands  in  the  lake,  and  the  towers  and 
houses  around  its  bays."  Allan  led  his  men 
to  the  further  side  of  the  loch  into  the 


KING  HAKON  AT  LARGS  151 

Lennox,  and  "  marched  far  over  into  Scot- 
land," burning  and  harrying  on  all  sides. 

He  had  been  better  employed  under  King 
Hakon,  for  on  September  30  the  storm 
Alexander  had  been  waiting  and  hoping  for 
fell  upon  the  fleet.  Ten  ships  of  the  Loch 
Long  expedition  were  utterly  wrecked.  The 
storm  raged  for  two  days,  and  King  Hakon 
got  into  his  boat  and  rowed  ashore  on  one 
of  the  Cumbraes,  and  there  had  mass  sung. 

Many  of  the  ships  had  been  torn  from 
their  anchorage  and  driven  ashore  on  the 
rocks  of  Largs  and  the  Cumbraes,  while  the 
rest  of  the  fleet  was  driven  up  the  Clyde. 
Hakon,  seeing  the  threatening  attitude  of 
the  natives  who  covered  the  hills,  landed  a 
force  to  protect  his  stranded  vessels  and  en- 
able the  men  to  refloat  them.  Then  it  was 
that  the  army  of  Alexander  appeared,  "  1500 
knights  and  barons  mounted  on  fleet  Spanish 
chargers,  and  a  large  body  of  foot,"  while  be- 
hind them  the  native  peasantry  appear  to 
have  made  a  formidable  show. 

The  Norwegian  force  landed  by  Hakon  is 
given  by  Snorro  as  only  900  men,  and  even 


152  ARRAN 

if  there  were  twice  as  many,  the  force  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  in  any  kind  of  proportion  to 
that  of  the  Scots.  That  they  gave  a  good 
account  of  themselves  is  clear  ;  forming  in  a 
circle,  with  their  long  spears,  they  met  the 
onslaught  of  the  mounted  knights  of  Alexan- 
der and  the  furious  charges  for  which  the 
Scottish  foot  were  famous. 

The  best  account  of  the  disaster  that 
followed  is  given  by  the  Saga,  which  is  very 
honest,  though  its  language  is  naturally 
reluctant,  and  the  truth  comes  out  that  the 
retreat  of  the  Norsemen  became  a  panic, 
in  which,  as  the  writer  euphemistically  puts 
it,  "each  tried  to  be  faster  than  the  others." 
The  Scots,  he  says,  "  had  a  great  host  of 
footmen,  but  that  force,"  he  adds  candidly, 
"  was  badly  equipped  as  to  weapons.  The 
most  of  them  had  bows  and  Irish  bills.  The 
Scots  came  on  foot,  and  pelted  them  with 
stones.  Then  a  great  shower  of  weapons  fell 
upon  the  Northmen.  But  they  fell  back  facing 
the  enemy,  and  shielded  themselves.  But 
when  the  Northmen  came  as  far  as  the  brow 
of  the  descent  which  went  down  from  the 


THE  OLD  PIER,  LAMLASH, 
AND  THE  HOLY  ISLAND 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WINGATE,  R.S.A. 


KING  HAKON  AT  LARGS  153 

hillock,  then  each  tried  to  be  faster  than  the 
others.  And  when  those  which  were  down 
below  on  the  shingle  saw  that,  they  thought 
that  the  Northmen  wanted  to  flee.  Then  the 
Northmen  ran  to  the  boats,  and  in  that  way 
some  of  them  put  off  from  the  land  and  came 
out  to  the  ships.  But  most  of  the  boats  sunk, 
and  then  some  men  were  lost.  Many  North- 
men ran  under  the  lee  of  the  bark,  and  some 
got  up  into  her.  When  the  Northmen  came 
down  from  the  hillock  into  the  dell  between 
it  and  the  shingle,  then  most  of  them  took  to 
running.  Then  some  one  called  out  to  them 
to  turn  back.  Then  some  men  turned  back, 
but  still  few.  There  fell  one  of  the  King's 
bodyguard,  Hakon  of  Steni.  Then  the 
Northmen  still  ran  away." 


CHAPTER   XVII 
KING  HAKON  AT  LAMLASH 

THAT  same  day,  the  Saga  tells  us,  King 
Hakon  "  sailed  away  from  the  Cumbraes  and 
out  to  Molas  Isle  (Lamlash),  and  lay  there 
some  nights.  Thither  came  to  him  those 
men  whom  he  had  sent  to  Ireland ;  and  told 
him  that  the  Irish  would  keep  the  whole  host 
that  winter  on  the  understanding  that  Hakon 
would  free  them  from  the  sway  of  the 
Englishmen." 

Hakon,  however,  decided  to  sail  northward 
to  Orkney.  He  had  made  a  brave  fight,  but 
it  could  only  have  been  a  piece  of  bravado 
that  on  his  way  he  gave  to  Dugall,  and 
Allan  his  brother,  the  lands  of  King  Eoghan, 
Bute  to  Ruari,  and  Arran  to  Margad  or 
Marchad,  and  also  the  castle  of  Dunaverty  to 
Dugall. 


154 


KING  HAKON  AT  LAMLASH  155 

The  old  king  reached  Kirkwall,  there 
intending  to  wait  till  he  could  gather  another 
force,  but  the  terrible  disaster  he  had  suffered, 
and  no  doubt  fatigue  and  anger,  brought  on 
a  fever  from  which  he  died.  His  body  was 
taken  to  Norway,  and  buried  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Bergen.  He  had  reigned  for  nearly  fifty 
years,  and  his  name  is  one  of  the  greatest  on 
the  roll  of  the  Norwegian  kings. 

The  battle  of  Largs  went  to  Alexander. 
Much  has  been  made  of  it,  but  it  was  not  the 
victory  it  has  been  claimed  to  be,  the  force  of 
the  Scottish  king  being  an  overwhelming 
one  when  pitted  against  the,  at  the  most,  few 
hundred  Norsemen  who  were  able  to  land. 
In  truth,  the  storm  did  more  for  Scotland  on 
that  occasion  than  the  forces  of  its  king. 
The  battle,  however,  ended  the  most  terrible 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  Western  Isles 
and  Highlands  of  Scotland.  It  is  true  that 
for  a  full  hundred  years,  since  the  days  of 
Somerled,  the  time  had  been  a  comparatively 
peaceful  one  in  the  Southern  Isles.  Yet  still 
for  Scotland  it  was  essential  that  the 
Norwegian  menace  should  be  removed 


156  ARRAN 

finally  from  her  doors.  It  is  satisfactory  to 
those  who  love  the  Hebrides  to  remember 
that  one  of  our  own  blood  and  race  was  un- 
doubtedly the  real  "Tamer  of  the  Ravens," 
the  true  Hammer  of  the  Norsemen,  and  not 
the  Scottish  king. 

Hakon  was  succeeded  by  Magnus,  who,  on 
the  death  of  the  King  of  Man  in  1265,  was 
persuaded  to  hand  over  all  the  Western 
Islands  formally  to  Scotland,  it  being  stipu- 
lated in  the  treaty  that  such  of  the  subjects 
of  Norway  who  wished  to  leave  the  Hebrides 
should  have  full  liberty  to  do  so,  with  all 
their  effects,  while  those  who  wished  to  remain 
were  to  become  loyal  subjects  of  Scotland. 


PART   VII 
THE   DAYS   OF   WALLACE 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

THE  GREAT  WAR  OF  INDEPENDENCE 
THE    BATTLE    OF    STIRLING    BRIDGE 

THE  relations  of  England  and  Scotland  were 
never  more  friendly  than  in  1290,  when  the 
Scots  paid  Edward  i.  the  compliment  of 
calling  him  to  act  as  umpire  between  the 
claimants  for  the  crown  of  Scotland,  on  the 
death  of  Alexander  in.  and  of  his  little  grand- 
daughter, the  "  Maid  of  Norway."  To  this 
girl,  then  a  mere  child,  it  had  been  arranged 
that  Edward's  son  should  be  married,  and  so 
fulfil  the  great  dream  of  the  ambitious  English 
king  by  uniting  the  two  kingdoms. 

Until  the  Union  of  the  Crowns  in  1707 
Scotland  had  no  enemy  in  the  world  save 
England,  and  during  the  reigns  of  David  I. 
and  her  three  excellent  Alexanders  she  had 
been  happy  and  prosperous.  Mr.  Renwick 


160  ARRAN 

says  :  "  It  is  universally  agreed  that,  through- 
out her  long  career  as  an  independent  king- 
dom, no  period  was  more  prosperous  for 
Scotland  than  the  century  and  a  half  which 
elapsed  bet  ween  the  accession  of  the  first  David 
and  the  death  of  the  last  Alexander.  .  .  . 
The  Scottish  monarchs  . .  .  ruled  over  a  united 
people  from  Maidenkirk  to  John  o'  Groats." 

It  is  well  to  remember  this,  for  Scotsmen 
are  apt  to  despise  their  early  ancestors,  and 
to  believe  that  all  good  things  commenced 
in  the  reign  of  Robert  Bruce.  Yet  many 
of  our  native  kings,  like  Brude  or  Bride  of 
Columba's  time,  Constantine  of  Brunanburh 
fame,  and  that  grand  old  fighter,  Malcolm 
Canmore,  showed  sterling  character  and 
strength.  The  Alexanders  and  David  i.  were 
indeed  men  of  conspicuous  wisdom  and  up- 
rightness. Only  with  the  Norman  and  feudal 
taint  came  the  tendency  to  tyranny  so  familiar 
in  England  and  in  some  of  the  later  Scottish 
kings ;  though  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
Stewarts  were  conspicuously  superior,  both  in 
mind  and  manners,  to  the  Plantagenet  and 
Tudor  monarchs.  Indeed,  no  king  of  the  low 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  161 

mental  calibre  of  the  Georges  ever  sat  upon 
the  Scottish  throne.  On  this  point  the  old 
ballad  put  the  feeling  of  the  Scottish  people 
admirably — 

"  Wha  the  deil  hae  we  gotten  for  a  king, 
But  a  wee,  wee  German  lairdie ! 

When  we  gaed  owre  tae  bring  him  hame, 
He  was  delvin'  in  his  kail  yairdie. 

He  was  sheughin'  kail,  and  layin'  leeks, 

Without  the  hose,  and  but  the  breeks ; 

And  up  his  beggar  duds  he  cleeks, 
This  wee,  wee  German  lairdie." 

The  laws  of  the  Scots  kingdom  made  kingly 
tyranny  difficult,  just  as  the  old  Scottish  pre- 
feudal  laws  made  difficult  the  tyranny  of  the 
great  lords  and  chiefs.  It  was  the  feudal 
system  that  made  it  easy  in  both  countries. 

Save  in  the  set-back  due  to  the  Norse 
invasions,  Scotland  suffered  no  more  terrible 
calamity  than  the  persecutions  of  Edward  i. 
and  his  efforts  to  convert  the  country  into  an 
English  province.  The  only  satisfaction  is 
that  they  ended  in  utter  failure,  and  brought 
the  commons  into  the  field,  as  men  whose 
honour  and  weal  were  alike  concerned  in 
keeping  their  country  independent.  This  was 


ii 


162  ARRAN 

a  negative  kind  of  benefit,  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  same  end  would  have  been  far  better 
served  by  other  and  less  costly  means ;  but 
it  is  a  benefit  of  which  historians  of  a  certain 
type  have  made  much,  as  they  have  of  the 
Norse  invasions — as  though  a  great  war  can 
be  a  benefit,  can  be  anything  other  than  a 
great  calamity  ;  as  though  invasions  by  North 
American  Indians  could  be  anything  less  than 
a  great  curse  to  a  civilised  community.  What 
the  Norsemen  and  the  feudal  system  robbed 
us  of  was  a  national  culture  which  had  grown 
up  during  a  thousand  years,  a  culture  which 
was  our  own,  which  had  received  the  imprint 
of  our  race,  and  which  had  splendid  prospects 
of  development. 

There  was  little  of  patriotism  in  the  thirteen 
candidates  who  came  forward  to  claim  the 
crown  of  Alexander  in.  on  his  sad  and  sudden 
death  by  the  fall  of  his  horse  over  the  cliffs 
at  Kinghorn  in  Fife.  Only  two  of  them, 
indeed,  had  any  real  claim ;  but  it  suited 
Edward's  purpose  to  cause  difficulty  and 
confusion,  so  that  in  making  his  award  as 
umpire  he  might  place  the  successful  candidate 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  163 

under  an  obligation  to  himself.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  the  candidates  were  in  any  sense 
Scottish  in  feeling  or  sentiment  or  education  ; 
they  all  had  a  share  of  Scottish  blood  in  the 
female  line.  It  was  a  dark  hour  for  Scotland 
this  when,  as  the  poet  says,  her  "golde 
changed  into  lede."  After  eighteen  months 
of  deliberation,  Edward  gave  his  award  to 
John  Baliol,  a  man  of  weak  character  but 
not  without  courage.  As  soon  as  he  became 
king,  Edward  commenced  to  heap  indignities 
upon  him  ;  assuming  the  character  of  an  over- 
lord, to  which  he  had  no  tittle  of  right,  he 
commanded  that  any  act  of  injustice,  or 
complaint  should  be  referred  to  him  by  the 
King  of  Scotland,  who  must  appear  before 
him  personally  at  Westminster.  Even  Baliol, 
the  "toom  tabard,"  could  not  stand  this  kind 
of  degradation,  and  he  threw  off  his  allegiance 
and  invaded  England. 

Edward  had  now  got  what  he  aimed  at, 
and  he  marched  north  with  a  huge  army 
backed  by  a  great  fleet.  Taking  Berwick, 
then  our  first  seaport,  he  slew,  in  the  streets 
of  the  town,  no  less  than  seventeen  thousand 


164  ARRAN 

persons,  and  finally  utterly  routed  Baliol's 
army  at  Dunbar.  He  then  marched  north 
as  far  as  Elgin,  and  made  himself  master 
of  the  country.  Baliol  submitted  and  did 
penance  before  the  English  knights  in  the 
churchyard  of  Strathcathro.  His  crown  was 
taken  from  his  brow,  and  he  was  publicly 
unfrocked,  while  he  stood  and  admitted  his 
guilt,  dressed  only  in  his  shirt  and  drawers. 
The  crown  he  resigned,  and  he  was  sent  a 
prisoner  to  the  Tower  of  London.  The 
insult  was  deeply  felt  by  the  Scottish  people. 
Edward  appointed  the  Earl  of  Surrey 
Guardian  of  Scotland,  filled  all  the  castles 
with  English  garrisons  and  the  public  offices 
with  Englishmen,  and  took  away  to  West- 
minster the  famous  Stone  of  Destiny  on 
which  the  Scottish  kings  had  been  crowned 
from  immemorial  time.  It  is,  however,  pretty 
clear  that  this  "lawyer  king,"  as  he  has  been 
called,  did  not  remove  the  national  documents 
as  has  been  stated.  Mr.  Joseph  Bain  has 
cleared  this  stain  from  his  character.  Fearing 
lest  the  Scots  should  join  Philip  of  France 
in  his  war  against  him,  he  ordered  that  no 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  165 

Scotsman  should  be  allowed  to  leave  the 
kingdom. 

This  was  in  January  1 296-7.  In  the  winter 
of  the  same  year  a  young  man,  son  of  Sir 
Malcolm  Wallace  of  Elderslie  in  Renfrew,  was 
insulted  by  the  English  in  the  streets  of 
Lanark.  With  a  handful  of  men  and  his 
friend  Sir  John  the  Graeme  (the  remains  of 
whose  castle  may  still  be  seen  near  Balfron) 
they  fought  their  way  through  the  streets  to 
his  house,  from  which  they  escaped  into  the 
woods.  The  English  governor,  Haselrig, 
knowing  that  Wallace's  young  sweetheart,  the 
heiress  of  the  Bradfuites  of  Lamington,  had 
helped  their  escape,  had  her  put  to  death  ;  and 
Wallace,  the  first  of  Scottish  patriots,  who  had 
already  been  engaged  in  fighting  the  invaders, 
came  into  prominence  by  the  revenge  he  ex- 
acted for  this  murder.  He  broke  into  the 
house  of  the  governor,  Haselrig,  at  midnight, 
and,  dragging  him  into  the  street,  had  him 
instantly  beheaded.  The  people  of  the  town 
then  rose,  and  slew  twelve-score  of  the  men  of 
Edward's  garrison. 

Some  of  the  nobles  now  came  over  to  the 


166  ARRAN 

popular  side.  Amongst  them,  the  Steward  of 
Scotland  and  Sir  John  Stewart  of  Bonkill 
joined  Wallace,  who  united  his  force,  largely 
composed  of  Lanark  townsmen,  with  that 
under  Sir  William  Douglas. 

The  Stewarts  brought  into  the  field  the 
men  of  Bute  and  Arran,  the  famous  B randan i  ; 
and  after  the  successful  campaign  in  the 
Glasgow  neighbourhood,  Wallace  appears  to 
have  taken  them,  with  "Westland  men  all 
sturdy,  stout,  and  bold,  five  hundred  next, 
Sir  John  the  Graeme  he  got,  Lundie  five 
hundred  more,"  in  his  march  through  Glen- 
dochart  to  Brander  and  Loch  Awe  to  trap 
the  Irish  mercenary  general,  Mac  Fadzean. 
Thence  they  seem  to  have  marched  to  Ard- 
chattan,  and  here  held  a  kind  of  conference 
with  the  West  Highland  leaders. 

Carrick  suggests  that  it  was  owing  to  the 
growing  strength  of  Wallace's  force,  and 
possibly  to  his  severe  punishment  of  deserters 
of  rank,  that  some  of  the  barons  left  him 
a  little  later. 

These  deserters  included  the  best  of  the 
nobles,  like  Sir  William  of  Douglas,  the 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  167 

Steward,  Stewart  of  Bonkill,  Robert  Bruce, 
Lindsay,  and  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow,  Wishart. 
Wallace  marched  north,  followed  only  by  his 
poorer  adherents,  the  free  yeomanry  of  Scot- 
land. These,  as  Carrick  says,  were  the  tenants 
and  descendants  of  tenants  of  the  crown  and 
church  lands,  or  those  who  occupied  farms  on 
the  demesnes  of  the  barons,  for  which  they 
paid  an  equivalent  rent  in  money  qr  produce. 
They  had  the  power  "  of  removing  to  what- 
ever place  they  might  think  most  desirable, 
and  owed  no  military  service  except  to  the 
king  for  the  defence  of  the  country.  Among 
them  the  independence  of  Scotland  always 
found  its  most  faithfuland  stubborn  supporters. 
These  liberi  firmarii,  for  so  they  are  called 
in  the  Chartularies  and  Chamberlain's  Ac- 
counts, were  considered  so  useful  .  .  .  that, 
during  the  minority  of  the  Maid  of  Norway, 
a  sum  of  money  appears  to  have  been  distri- 
buted among  them  as  an  inducement  to  remain 
on  the  crown  lands  of  Liberton  and  Lawrence- 
toun,  which  they  were  preparing  to  leave  in  con- 
sequence of  a  mortality  amongst  their  cattle." 
These  and  the  freemen  of  the  boroughs, 


168  ARRAN 

rather  than  the  cottars  or  villeins  who  followed 
the  barons,  we  are  told,  supplied  the  material 
out  of  which  Wallace  recruited  his  ranks ;  and 
the  extraordinary  frequency  with  which  the 
Scottish  nobles,  including  even  the  Steward 
and  Robert  Bruce  himself,  changed  sides, 
leaving  Wallace  for  Edward  and  Edward  for 
Wallace,  made  little  difference  beyond  disgust- 
ing and  disheartening  the  great  leader. 

At  the  battle  of  Stirling  Bridge  it  is  prob- 
able that  Sir  John  Menteith,  on  whom  the 
lordship  of  Arran  had  been  conferred  by 
the  Steward,  and  also  Stewart  of  Bonkill, 
leader  of  the  Arran  men,  were  all  present. 
The  Steward  was  now  on  the  side  of  the 
English,  but  his  tenants  were  on  that  of 
the  people.  He  played  a  curious  part,  for, 
pretending  to  make  peace  for  the  English 
with  the  Scots,  he  turned  round  upon  them 
when  the  actual  fighting  began,  and  with  the 
Earl  of  Lennox  assisted  the  Scots  in  pursu- 
ing and  killing  the  English  who  were  trying 
to  save  themselves.  It  may  have  been  a 
deliberate  trick  on  their  part,  but  it  was  not 
an  honourable  trick.  In  fact,  never  did  the 


CLOUDS  MOVING  OVER  A  MOOR 
BEN  ARDVEN  IN  DISTANCE 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAW  TON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


' 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  169 

great  mass  of  the  Scoto-Norman  nobility  show 
in  a  meaner  light  than  all  through  this  cam- 
paign and  at  the  great  commoner's  battle  of 
Stirling  Bridge,  when  Wallace  unaided,  nay, 
hindered,  by  the  nobility,  utterly  annihilated 
a  huge  English  army. 

THE  BRANDANES  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF 
FALKIRK 

The  most  famous  achievement  of  the  Brand- 
ani  was  undoubtedly  the  prolonged  resistance 
and  splendid  devotion  they  showed  at  the 
battle  of  Falkirk — a  battle  which,  though  it 
ended  in  defeat,  was  one  of  the  things  of 
which  Scotsmen  may  well  be  proud.  There 
Wallace  was  at  his  greatest  and  best,  and 
there  the  commoners  of  Scotland — small  lairds, 
tacksmen,  and  "kindly  tenants,"  and  the  in- 
dependent clansmen  from  the  non-feudal, 
Gaelic-speaking  districts  of  Scotland — showed 
best  their  tenacity  and  their  stern  bravery  ; 
for  Falkirk,  like  later  Poitiers,  was  essentially 
a  soldiers'  battle.  And  of  all  the  soldiers 
engaged  in  it,  the  name  of  the  "  Brandanys  " 
comes  down  to  us  as  those  who  bore  the  brunt 


170  ARRAN 

of  the  fight.  The  subsequent  references  to 
them  in  the  story  of  Wallace  shows  in  what 
high  estimation  they  were  held.  They  it  was 
who  withstood  and  defeated  the  great  attack 
of  Lincoln  and  Hereford,  and  the  second  on- 
slaught by  Bek  and  Bruce,  and  they  it  was, 
"  the  men  who  would  hazard  anything,"  who 
at  the  end  of  the  fight  were  called  upon  when 
Wallace  gathered  a  few  chosen  men  to  guard 
the  retreat  of  the  remnant  of  his  army.  So 
effective  does  their  resistance  and  the  general- 
ship of  Wallace  appear  to  have  been  in  cover- 
ing the  retreat  of  his  men,  that  there  was  no 
rout  or  disorder  or  pursuit ;  though  they  were 
but  a  handful,  the  English  were  glad  to  allow 
them  to  retire  unmolested ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  Scots  were  able  to  bury  quietly  the 
dead  Sir  John  the  Graeme,  and  possibly 
Bonkill,  in  Falkirk  graveyard  before  their 
march  westwards  upon  Stirling.  It  was,  in- 
deed, not  till  four  days  later  that  Edward 
entered  that  town.  He  had  won,  but  his  army 
had  had  their  fill  of  fighting,  and  he  knew  it. 
The  Lord  of  Arran  was  at  this  time,  as  we 
have  said,  Sir  John  Menteith,  who  was  a 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  171 

Stewart ;  Blind   Harry  tells  us  how  he  had 
joined  Wallace  : 

"Sir  John  Monteith  was  then  of  Arran  lord, 
To  Wallace  came  and  made  a  plain  record, 
With  witness  there  by  his  oath  he  him  band  [bound], 
Faithful  to  keep  to  Wallace  and  Scotland." 

Sir  John,  "  the  false  Menteith,"  is  one  of  the 
most  famous  figures  in  Scottish  history,  as  the 
man  who  later  betrayed  Wallace  to  the  English. 

The  lordship  of  the  island  of  Arran  had 
been  given  to  him  by  the  Steward  of  Scotland 
a  very  little  earlier,  but  the  Arran  men 
followed  his  nephew  Bonkill,  brother  of  the 
Steward,  as  the  representative  of  Jane,  grand- 
daughter of  Angus,  son  of  Somerled. 

It  is  curious  that  Menteith's  brother  was 
at  this  time  governor  of  the  great  castle  of 
Rothesay  in  Edward's  interest,  while  Brodick 
castle  was  held  by  Menteith  himself  for  the 
Scots.  It  is  clear  that  the  natives  were 
wholly  and  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the 
popular  cause,  despite  the  fact  that  Rothesay 
was  in  the  hands  of  Edward. 

The  English  army  which  marched  on 
Falkirk,  according  to  English  accounts,  was 


172  ARRAN 

a  magnificent  one  :  it  numbered  over  123,000 
men,  including  3000  horsemen  armed  at  all 
points,  and  4000  hobilers  or  light  horse,  while 
the  footmen  numbered  80,000  ;  but  these  were 
not  all,  for  reinforcements  came  up  on  the 
march.  The  army,  moreover,  included  Ed- 
ward's splendid  veterans  who  had  done  such 
service  in  the  French  war.  It  was  supported  by 
a  great  fleet  of  vessels  anchored  in  the  Forth, 
with  which  communication  was  quite  easy  by 
the  river  Carron,  then  navigable  right  up  to 
the  present  town  of  Falkirk,  Grahamston,  and 
Bainsford — or  more  properly  Briansford  ;  for 
the  name  was  taken  from  that  of  Brian  le  Joy, 
Prior  of  the  Knights  Templars  in  Scotland, 
who  joined  Edward  and  was  slain  by  Wal- 
lace's own  hand  in  Callendar  Wood,  near  this 
spot.  With  him  were  many  of  the  Scottish 
nobles  who  had  also  joined  Edward,  and  one 
of  them,  the  Earl  of  Angus,  who  was  with 
Wallace,  is  said  to  have  sent  secret  informa- 
tion to  Edward  as  to  the  position  of  the 
Scottish  army  and  of  Wallace's  intention  to 
make  a  night  attack.  So  was  Scotland  be- 
trayed on  all  sides  by  her  Norman  nobility. 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  173 

On  Edward's  side  were  arrayed  all  the 
great  men  of  his  realm,  Lincoln  and  Here- 
ford, Butler  and  Clifford,  FitzAlan  and  Fitz- 
Marmaduke,  Hastings  and  Bruce. 

The  Scottish  army  numbered  30,000,  and  it 
had  the  fatal  defect  of  being  almost  without 
cavalry.  Wallace  was  in  favour  of  avoiding 
so  great  an  army,  and  adopting  a  waiting 
policy  by  retiring  north.  There  were  serious 
dissensions  amongst  the  three  leaders,  and 
much  jealousy.  So  the  little  army,  consisting 
of  spearmen  chiefly,  paused  on  that  historic 
plain,  close  to  the  remains  of  the  Roman  city 
of  Camelon — a  plain  which  had  been  the 
battleground  of  Scotland  during  so  many 
ages.  The  three  divisions  of  the  army  were 
under  Wallace,  Comyn,  and  Sir  John  Stewart 
of  Bonkill.  It  is  said  that  Stewart  wished  to 
take  supreme  command,  as  brother  to  the 
High  Steward,  who  was  not  present ;  Comyn, 
again,  claimed  the  command  on  account  of  his 
near  kinship  to  the  throne  ;  while  Wallace  de- 
clined to  surrender  his  authority.  One  remark 
of  Stewart's,  quoted  by  Blind  Harry,  is  of 
interest,  as  it  shows,  whether  Stewart  actually 


174  ARRAN 

made  it  or  not,  that  the  retainers  of  the  peers 
had  joined  the  popular  cause  independently 
of  their  feudal  superiors — 

"  Then  of  your  men  be  not  so  vain,  but  mind 
Had  each  his  own  there  would  be  few  left." 

"  If  every  nobleman  in  Scotland  were  to  claim 
his  part  of  those  vassals  which  now  follow 
your  banners,  your  own  personal  retainers 
would  make  but  a  sorry  appearance  in  sup- 
port of  your  high  pretensions."  * 

Comyn  deserted  at  the  beginning  of  the 
battle,  taking  with  him  10,000  men  ;  leaving 
Stewart  with  his  Selkirk  archers  and  his 
Arran  and  Bute  men,  and  MacDuff  with  the 
men  of  Fife,  to  bear  the  brunt  of  Hereford's 
attack.  Stewart,  according  to  Blind  Harry, 
met  the  advancing  division  of  30,000  men 
with  his  10,000 : 

".  .  .  the  brave  Stewart  stood  so  fierce  and  hot, 
That  Hareford's  men  lay  dead  upon  the  spot. 
When  spears  were  broke,  boldly  their  swords  they  drew, 
And  many  thousand  of  the  Southron  slew. 
The  rest  they  fled  unto  their  king  with  grief, 
Who  sent  ten  thousand  for  a  fresh  relief." 

*  Carrick. 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  175 

The  Brandani  fought  on  though  their 
leader  fell  early  in  the  day,  and  Wallace, 
according  to  Blind  Harry,  said — 

"  They  have  done  well  in  that  fellon  stoure  ;  * 
Rescue  them  now,  and  take  a  high  honour." 

They  had  withstood  the  onset  of  a  whole 
division,  and  being  freemen,  lairds,  and  free 
clansmen,  and  not  feudal  serfs  or  vassals,  they 
were  used  to  acting  independently,  and  so, 
though  leaderless,  fought  on.  Wyntoun 
says  : 

"  The  Scottis  thare  slayne  were  in  that  stoure ; 
There  Jhon  Stwart  apon  fute, 
Wyth  him  the  Brandanys  thare  of  Bute." 

It  has  been  always  a  sore  thing  for  Scottish 
historians  to  believe  that  Bruce,  afterwards 
the  good  king,  was  on  Edward's  side  at  that 
great  fight :  it  is  humiliating,  but  the  fact 
was  evidently  too  universally  known  during 
Bruce's  own  lifetime  to  be  suppressed. 

Fordun  makes  it  quite  clear,  and  he  wrote 
about  the  year  1380,  or  only  some  fifty  years 
after  the  death  of  Bruce,  and  must  have  been 
born  not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  years  after 

*  Dust  of  turmoil. 


176  ARRAN 

that  event,  when  the  story  of  the  great  struggle 
was  in  every  one's  mouth.  He  says  :— 

"  While  the  Scots  were  holding  their 
ground  invincible,  and  could  not  be  broken 
by  either  force  or  stratagem,  this  Robert  of 
Bruce,  with  a  body  of  men  commanded  by 
Antony  de  Bek,  taking  a  long  circuit  round 
a  mountain,  attacked  the  Scots  in  the  rear. 
Thus  the  Scots,  whose  ranks  were  impene- 
trable and  invincible  in  front,  were  cunningly 
vanquished  in  the  rear."  Blind  Harry  gives 
the  same  account. 

Wyntoun  also,  who  wrote  in  1426,  would  no 
doubt  have  been  glad  enough  to  suppress  facts 
which  soiled  the  character  of  so  popular  a  hero 
as  Bruce,  had  it  been  possible  to  do  so.  It 
remained  for  later  historians  near  to  our  own 
day  to  attempt  the  task,  but,  however  un- 
palatable, 

"Truth  will  stand  though  all  things  failin'." 

Blind  Harry  tells  how  the  Brandani  stood 
over  their  fallen  leader  : 

"Sir  John  the  Graym,  and  mony  worthy  wicht, 
Wepyt  in  woe  for  sorrow  of  that  sicht, 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  177 

When  Bruce  his  battaill  apon  the  Scottis  straik, 
Thair  cruel  com  *  made  cowards  for  to  quake  ; 
Lord  Cumyn  fled  to  Cummyrnauld  away. 
About  the  Scottis  the  Suthernes  lappit  they 
The  men  of  Bute  before  thair  lord  thai  stud, 
Defendand  him,  when  fell  streams  of  blood, 
Were  there  about  in  floodis  where  they  went. 
Bathed  in  blood  was  Bruce's  sword  and  dress, 
Through  fell  slaughter  of  trewmen  of  his  own. 
Soon  to  the  death  the  Scots  were  overthrown. 

So,  exposed  to  the  famous  bowmen  of 
England,  and  surrounded  by  the  men  of  Bruce 
and  Bek,  the  close-locked,  invincible  schiltrons 
of  Brandanes  were  mown  down  till  they  lay 
heaped  up  like  a  wall  around  their  fallen 
leader.  Then  Wallace  gathered  his  knights, 
and,  ordering  his  army  to  retire  towards  the 
Torwood,  where  they  would  be  protected  from 
Edward's  cavalry  and  bowmen,  to  cover  their 
retreat — 

"  He  and  Sir  John  the  Graham,  and  Lauder  then, 
Stayed  with  three  hundred  stout  West  Countrymen, 
Expert  in  war  would  hazard  anything." 

So  much  the  great  leader  thought  of  our 
forbears  of  the  West,  to  whom  went  the  chief 
honours  of  that  fatal  day,  though  justice  has 
never  been  done  to  the  fact. 

*  Arrival. 


178  ARRAN 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  good  Sir  John 
the  Graeme  fell,  in  a  conflict,  it  seems,  be- 
tween the  few  knights  of  Wallace's  force  and 
those  accompanying  Bruce's  party.  The 
Scottish  host,  or  what  was  left  of  it,  retired 
to  the  Torwood  above  Larbert  on  Carron 
side,  and  Bruce  is  described  as  returning  to 
Edward's  tent  where  he, 

"  Sitting  down  in  his  own  vacant  seat, 
Call'd  for  no  water,  but  went  straight  to  meat. 
Tho'  all  his  weapons  and  his  other  weed  * 
Were  stained  with  blood,  yet  he  began  to  feed  ; 
The  Southron  lords  did  mock  him  in  terms  rude, 
And  said,  behold  yon  Scot  eats  his  own  blood  ! 
The  king  he  blenched  at  this  so  home  a  jest, 
And  caused  bring  water  to  the  Bruce  in  haste ; 
They  bade  him  wash,  he  told  them  he  would  not, 
'The  blood  is  mine,  which  vexes  most  my  thought.'" 


HOW  THE  BRANDANES  COVERED  THE 
RETREAT 

According  to  Carrick's  account,  made  up 
from  the  English  writers,  who  do  not  differ 
materially  from  the  foregoing,  the  Scottish 
army,  which  principally  consisted  of  spearmen 
or  lancers,  was  arranged  in  four  divisions  or 

*  Clothing  and  accoutrements. 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  179 

schiltrons.  "  Those  in  the  centre  held  their 
long  spears  perpendicular,  and  stood  ready  to 
fill  up  a  vacancy,  while  each  intervening  rank 
gradually  sloped  their  weapons  till  they  came 
to  a  level.  The  front  rank  kneeling,  and  the 
whole  closely  wedged  together,  presented  to 
the  enemy  the  appearance  of  four  enormous, 
impenetrable  porcupines,  the  space  between 
each  being  filled  up  with  archers."  Seeing 
the  strong  appearance  of  the  Scots,  the  king 
desired  to  wait,  but  gave  way  to  the  opinions 
of  his  followers,  and  sent  forward  the  Earls 
of  Lincoln  and  Hereford  with  a  squadron 
of  30,000  men.  Their  progress,  how- 
ever, was  retarded  by  an  extensive  morass, 
which  covered  the  front  of  the  Scots  and 
obliged  their  enemies  to  make  a  circuit  to  the 
west.  While  thus  employed,  the  powerful 
squadron  under  Bishop  Bek  of  Durham 
managed  to  get  in  front  of  the  enemy.  Bek, 
however,  on  observing  the  formidable  appear- 
ance of  his  opponents,  wished  to  delay  the 
charge  till  supported  by  the  column  under  the 
command  of  the  king.  "  Stick  to  thy  mass, 
Bishop,"  said  Ralf  Basset  of  Drayton,  "and 


i8o  ARRAN 

teach  us  not  what  to  do  in  the  face  of  an 
enemy."  "On,  then,"  said  Bek  ;  "set  on  in 
your  own  way  ;  we  are  all  soldiers  to-day,  and 
bound  to  do  our  duty."  At  this  his  men 
rushed  forward,  and  "  became  engaged  with 
the  first  schiltron,  which  was  almost  simul- 
taneously attacked  on  the  opposite  quarter 
by  the  division  of  Lincoln  and  Hereford  which 
had  cleared  the  morass.  The  cavalry  of  the 
Scots,  and  a  large  body  of  the  vassals  of  John 
Comyn,  immediately  wheeled  about,  and  left 
the  field  without  awaiting  the  attack.  The 
schiltrons  of  spearmen,  however,  stood  firm, 
and  repulsed  all  efforts  of  their  numerous  and 
heavy-armed  assailants,  who  recoiled  again 
and  again  before  the  mass  of  spears.  Baffled 
in  their  attack,  Edward's  cavalry  charged  upon 
the  archers,  who,  less  able  to  stand  their 
ground  against  the  weight  of  their  mail-clad 
adversaries,  gave  way.  In  the  confusion,  Sir 
John  Stewart  of  Bonkill  was  thrown  to  the 
ground,  while  attempting  to  rally  his  followers, 
the  archers  of  Selkirk,  and,  though  many  of 
them  rushed  forward  to  his  assistance,  their 
exertions  were  in  vain  :  their  gallant  leader 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  181 

fell  surrounded  by  the  bodies  of  his  faithful 
tenantry." 

Though  heavy  squadrons  of  cavalry  were 
continually  pushed  forward  against  the  Scot- 
tish spearmen,  "still  they  maintained  their 
ranks,  and  displayed  such  admirable  discipline 
and  stubborn  resolution,  that  Edward,  con- 
vinced of  the  inability  of  breaking  their  array, 
suspended  the  charges  of  his  horsemen,  and 
ordered  all  his  archers  and  slingers  to  ad- 
vance." Of  these,  it  is  interesting  to  note, 
40,000  Welsh  archers  refused  to  act  against 
the  Scots.  Langtoft  says  : 

"  The  Walsch  folk  that  tide  did  nouther  ille  nor  good ; 
They  held  them  alle  beside,  upon  a  hille  they  stood. 
Where  they  stood  that  while,  tille  the  battle  was  done." 

Of  the  Scottish  spearmen  he  says  : 

"  Ther  foremast  conrey,  their  backs  together  set, 
Their  speares  poynt  over  poynt,  so  sare  and  so  thick, 
And  fast  together  joined,  to  see  it  was  ferlike. 
As  a  castle  they  stood,  that  were  walled  with  stone, 
They    wende  no   man    of   blood   through   them   should 

have  gone  ; 

These  folk  was  so  big,  so  stalwart  and  so  clean, 
Their  foyntes  forward  prikelle,  nohut  would  they  wene, 
That  if  all  England  from  Berwick  unto  Kent, 
The  therein  men  fond  had  been  thither  sent, 


i8a  ARRAN 

Stenth  should  none  have   had,   to   perte   them  through - 

oute, 
So  were  they  set  sad  with  poyntes  round  about." 

The  schiltron  formation,  we  are  told,  was 
well  adapted  for  defence,  and,  despite  their 
small  number  and  the  vast  odds  against  them, 
had  they  been  supplied  with  a  good  detachment 
of  cavalry  to  have  scattered  the  terrible  archers 
of  Edward,  they  would  have  probably  held 
their  ground.  As  it  was,  they  were  exposed 
to  clouds  of  arrows  and  other  missiles  till 
they  were  reduced,  it  is  estimated,  to  a  fourth 
of  their  number,  while  the  chosen  English 
cavalry  which  had  previously  tried  to  move 
them,  sat  on  their  great  horses  and  quietly 
waited  till  the  cloth  yard  arrows  had  done 
what  they,  the  veterans  of  the  French  war,  had 
failed  to  do.  And  so  the  lads  of  Argyll  and 
Arran  and  Bute,  of  Lanark  and  the  Lennox, 
of  Ayr  and  Renfrew,  of  Fife  and  Strathearn 
and  Stirlingshire, — an  army  which,  by  the 
way,  would  be  composed  almost  entirely  of 
Gaelic  -  speaking  persons,  —  was  gradually 
mown  down  till  the  field  was  encumbered  with 
their  dead,  to  the  number  of  15,000  out  of  an 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  183 

army  of  20,000 — 15,000  of  the  finest  soldiers 
Europe  could  then  produce. 


THE    BRANDANES    AT    PERTH 

Sir  John  the  Graeme  was  buried  in  the 
old  graveyard  of  Falkirk,  where  his  grave  may 
still  be  seen.  There  the  late  Marquis  of  Bute 
erected  a  monument  to  Stewart  of  Bonkill  and 
the  Brandanes,  though  it  is  probable  that 
Stewart  himself  was  actually  buried  in  Bute. 

After  the  battle,  the  leaders  had  to  hide  ;  for 
Edward's  armies  went  through  all  the  land, and 
Scotland  lay  at  his  feet.  For  six  months  she 
was  almost  conquered.  Bute  and  Arran  were 
once  more  regarded  as  the  safe  refuges  of  the 
patriotic  party,  and 

"  The  earl  Malcolm  and  Campbell  part,  but  let 
In  Bute,  succour  with  Synclar  for  to  get." 

and 

"Adam  Wallace,  and  Lyndsay  of  Cragye, 
Away  they  fled  by  nicht  upon  the  sea ; 
And  Robert  Boid,  which  was  baith  wyss  and  wicht ; 
Arane  they  took  to  fend  them  at  their  micht." 

During  Wallace's  absence  in  France,  the 


184  ARRAN 

Scots  fought  and  won  the  important  threefold 
battle  of  Roslin,  which  was  then  the  talk  of 
Europe,  and  which  had  given  so  much  en- 
couragement to  the  Scots.  Neither  Wallace 
nor  "  the  Westland  men  "  were  present  at  this 
battle,  of  which  an  excellent  account  has  been 
written  by  the  late  Mr.  E.  Bruce  Low.*  In 
July  1300  Edward  again  set  out  to  conquer 
Scotland  with  a  magnificent  army  ;  and  again 
in  1302,  after  a  short  truce,  when  Wallace 
gathered  his  old  friends,  Seton,  Lauder,  and 
Lundy  from  the  Bass,  where  they  were  in 
hiding,  and  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  Sir  Neil 
Campbell,  and  the  Brandanes  from  Bute  and 
Arran.  For  the  Brandani  had  not  yet  had 
their  fill  of  fighting,  though  there  was  many  a 
sore  heart  in  Arran  and  Bute,  and  for  many  a 
day  Falkirk  was  remembered  by  the  vacant 
places  it  had  left. 

"The  lordis  then  and  good  Synclair 
Soon  out  of  Bute  they  made  a  ballinger  t 
For  good  Wallace." 

And   some   time   later,   when    they   had    no 

*  In  Chamber fs  Journal,  1909. 
t  A  ship  or  galley. 


GREY  CLOUDLAND 
SOUND  OF  KILBRANNAN 

From  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  WING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


THE  DAYS  OF  WALLACE  185 

men  with  which  to  attack  Perth,  Wallace 
says  : 

"  In  to  the  North  therefore  let  us  bound, 
In  Ross  ye  know,  good  men  a  strength*  have  made, 
Here  then  aff  us  t  they  will  come  without  delay ; 
Also  in  Bute  the  bishop  good  Sinclair, 
(Fra  he  get  wit  he  comes  without  mar)J 
Good  Westland  men  of  Arane  and  Rauchle, 
If  they  be  warned  they  will  all  come  to  me." 

So- 

"  Byscop  Synclar  intill  all  haste  him  dycht 
Com  out  of  Bute  with  seemly  men  to  sicht ; 
Out  of  the  isles  of  Rauchle  and  Aran." 

They  appear  to  have  been  with  Wallace  in  his 
adventures  till  his  capture  by  means  of  Sir 
John  Stewart  of  Menteith,  but  we  have  no 
details  of  their  doings.  The  great  patriot 
was  captured  on  5th  August  1305.  Attempts 
have  been  made  to  whitewash  Menteith,  but 
the  fact  remains  that  he,  a  friend,  a  brother  in 
arms,  who  had  been  ardently  on  the  side  of 
the  people  and  the  independence  of  Scotland, 
hunted  down  and,  by  a  low  trick,  betrayed  the 

*  Castle.  t  Let  us  go. 

|  When  he  gets  knowledge  of  it  he  will  come  without  more 
ado. 


186  ARRAN 

patriot  who  had  saved  her  alike  from  Edward 
and  from  the  Scoto- Norman  nobles. 


EDWARD  S    VENGEANCE 

According  to  Hemingford's  Chronicle,  about 
this  time  Thomas  Bisset  of  the  Glens,  in  Ire- 
land, lord  of  the  island  of  Rathlin,  which  had 
given  so  many  men  to  the  support  of  Wallace, 
and  later  sheltered  Bruce,  landed  in  Arran 
with  a  large  force,  and  held  it  for  Edward. 
Bisset's  tenure,  however,  seems  to  have  been 
a  short  one,  for  in  1306  Sir  John  Hastings  was 
made  Governor  of  Brodick.  In  the  year  pre- 
vious Wallace  had  been  taken  and  executed, 
and  Edward  also  executed  an  extraordinary 
number  of  Bruce' s  friends,  including  his 
brothers  Neil,  Thomas,  and  Alexander,  his 
brother-in-law  Christopher  Seton,  and  Simon 
Fraser,  the  brilliant  soldier  but  extraordinary 
renegade  of  Roslin. 


PART    VIII 

HOW  THE   ARRAN   MEN 

SHELTERED   KING  ROBERT 

BRUCE 


CHAPTER   XIX 
THE  AMBUSH  AT  BRODICK  CASTLE 

MANY  romances  have  left  their  traces  on 
Arran :  that  of  the  dim  far-off  days  of  the  great 
monuments  of  Machrie  Moor,  the  defensive 
camps,  the  stone  circles ;  the  fine  dreamers, 
thinkers,  and  artists  too,  who  strove  for 
high  ideals  in  the  highly  civilised  Dalriadic 
colony,  must  have  left  their  imprint  on  Arran 
more  than  on  any  part  of  Scotland  save 
Kintyre  and  Knapdale.  Finally  came  the 
romance  of  the  terrible  days  of  the  Norse 
invasions,  days  of  darkness  and  of  blood  ;  and 
of  the  later  times  when  a  leader  of  the  island 
race  shattered  the  power  of  these  arch-enemies 
of  the  men  of  Arran.  Yet  not  one  of  those 
stirring  stories  can  compare  in  picturesque- 
ness,  in  the  immediate  touch  with  our  own  day, 
with  the  charming  tale  of  Bruce's  adven- 


ARRAN 

tures,  when,  defeated  and  deserted  by  all  save 
a  mere  handful,  he  sought  refuge  amongst 
the  bold  and  faithful  hearts  of  Kintyre  and 
Arran. 

It  was  worthy  of  the  old  quixotic  spirit  of 
the  sons  of  Somerled,  who  himself  took  up 
the  almost  hopeless  cause  of  Mac  Eth,  that 
Angus  and  the  Islesmen  of  Arran,  who  in  blood 
and  in  spirit  traced  themselves  to  the  days 
when  King  David  gave  Arran  to  Somer- 
led, should  receive  with  open  arms  the 
deserted  King  of  Scots  :  that  at  the  moment 
when  most  men  worshipped  the  rising  sun, 
they  should  turn  to  that  which  seemed  almost 
submerged  in  the  western  waters. 

o 

Barbour,  in  his  poem  of  "  The  Bruce,"  tells 
this,  Arran's  most  moving  story  : — 

"  To  King  Robert  again  go  we, 
That  in  Rauchryne  with  his  men, 
Lay  till  the  winter  near  was  gane, 
And  of  that  He  his  met  has  ta'en. 
James  of  Douglas  was  angry 
That  they  so  long  should  idle  lie, 
And  to  Sir  Robert  Boyd  said  he  : 
'  The  poor  folk  of  this  countree 
Are  chargit  upon  great  manner 
Of  us,  that  idle  lies  here. 
And  I  hear  say,  that  in  Arane, 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE  191 

In-till  a  stith  castell  of  stane, 
Are  English  men  that,  with  strong  hand, 
Holds  the  lordship  of  that  land. 
Go  we  thither ;  and  well  may  fall, 
Annoy  them  in  some  way  we  sail.' 
Sir  Robert  said,  '  I  grant  thar-till ; 
To  lie  here  more  were  little  skill : 
Therefore  to  Arane  pas  will  we, 
For  I  know  right  well  that  countree, 
And  the  castle  also  know  I.  .  .  .' 
With  that  they  buskit  them  on-aue, 
And  at  the  king  their  leave  have  ta'en, 
And  went  them  forth  then  on  their  way. 
Into  Kintyre  soon  come  are  they  ; 
Then  rowed  always  close  to  land, 
Till  at  the  night  was  near  at  hand  ; 
Then  to  Arane  they  went  their  way, 
And  safely  there  arrivit  they.* 
And  under  a  brae  their  galley  drew, 
And  then  it  holdit  well  enew 
Their  tackle,  oars,  and  their  stere  ; 
They  hide  all  in  the  same  manere. 
And  held  their  way  right  in  the  night, 
So  that,  or  day  was  dawned  light, 
They  were  ambushed  the  castle  near, 
Armit  in  the  best  manere ; 
And  though  they  wet  were  and  wearie, 
And  for  lang  fasting  all  hungry, 
They  thought  to  hold  them  all  privie 
Till  that  they  well  their  point  might  see. 
Sir  John  the  Hastings,  at  that  tide 
With  knights  of  full  mickle  pride, 
With  squires  and  good  yeomanry, 
That  were  a  weill  great  company, 


*  They  landed  in  Lochranza,  and  marched  through  Glen 
Chamadale  to  Brodick. 


IQ2  ARRAN 

Was  in  the  Castle  of  Brodwick  .  .  . 

The  time  that  James  of  Douglas, 

As  I  am  told,  ambushed  was  ; 

So  happened  at  that  time  by  chance, 

With  victuals  and  provisions, 

And  with  clothing  and  arms, 

The  day  before,  in  the  evening, 

The  under  warden  arrived  was 

With  three  boats,  quite  near  the  place, 

Where  that  the  folk  I  spoke  of  before 

Privily  ambushed  were. 

Soon  from  the  boats  the  batis  saw  them  gae, 

Of  English  men,  thirty  and  mae, 

Charged  all  with  sundry  things, 

Some  bore  wine  and  some  arms  .  .  ." 

Douglas  and  his  party  then  burst  from  their 
ambush, 

"And  slew  all  they  might  overtake. 
The  cry  raised  hideously  and  high, 
From  they,  that  dreading  well  to  die, 
Right  as  beasts  can  roar  and  cry 
They  rushit  forth  to  the  fighting  ; 
But  when  Douglas  saw  their  coming, 
On  his  men  he  knew  he  could  rely. 
And  went  to  meet  them  hastily. 
And  when  they  of  the  castle  saw  .  .  . 
They  fled  forouten  more  debate  ; 
And  they  them  followed  to  the  gate, 
And  slew  of  them,  as  they  in  past." 

Douglas  and  his  men  then  took  the  arms 
and  provisions  they  had  captured,  and  went 
their  way. 

Ten  days  later,  the  king,  with  all  the  men 


193 

who  had  followed  him,  set  out  in  thirty-three 
small  galleys,  and  "arivit  in  Arane." 

"And  syne  to  the  land  is  gane, 
And  we  in  a  toune  took  shelter ; 
And  soon  speired  carefully, 
If  any  man  could  tell  tithand 
Of  any  stranger  in  that  land." 

A  woman  tells  him  of  Douglas  and  his  men, 
who  had  discomfited  the  warden. 

"'Dame,'  said  the  king,  'should  you  me  vis 
To  that  place  where  their  hiding  is, 
I  will  reward  you  but  lesing  : 
For  they  are  all  of  my  own  dwelling  ; 
And  I  right  blithely  would  them  see, 
And  right  so  trow  I  they  would  me.'" 

And  so  the  good  woman  led  him,  though, 
as  the  islanders  were  all  Gaelic  speakers  for 
five  hundred  years  afterwards,  it  is  certain 
that,  if  the  poet  writes  truly,  the  king  must 
have  learnt  Gaelic  in  his  youth  in  his  mother's 
land  of  Galloway  or  Carrick. 

"They  followed  her  as  she  them  led, 
Till  at  the  last  she  shewed  the  stead, 
To  the  king  in  a  woody  glen." 

The  place  is  said  by  tradition  to  have 
been  the  ancient  fort  called  Tornanschian  in 
Glencloy. 


194  ARRAN 

The  king  wound  his  horn  three  times,  and 
Douglas  knew  the  sound,  and  went  forth  with 
Sir  Robert  Boyd. 

"And  blithely  welcomed  them  the  king, 
That  joyfull  was  of  their  meeting, 
And  kissed  them  and  speired  them 
How  they  had  fared  in  their  hunting." 

Bruce,  according  to  the  tradition,  took  up 
his  quarters  in  the  caves  of  Drumadoon,  which 
are  associated  with  his  name,  but  he  later 
set  to  work  to  capture  Brodick  Castle,  and 
there  took  up  his  quarters.  The  spot  is 
shown  in  the  castle  where  his  little  party  used 
to  sit  and  chat  and  so  beguile  the  time,  and 
the  king  used  to  tell  stories  of  chivalry  to 
entertain  his  men ;  for  he  was  a  genial  and 
kindly  man  was  our  strong-armed  king,  and 
was  not  of  the  sort,  as  he  proved  later,  who 
forgot  or  neglected  those  who  helped  them. 

BRUCE    AND    THE    SPIDER 

According  to  tradition,  the  cottage  in  which 
the  defeated  and  discouraged  king  watched 
the  spider  in  its  many  attempts  to  weave  its 
web,  as  described  in  the  well-known  ballad, 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE     195 

stood  on  the  shore  at  Whiting  Bay,  and  the 
wife  of  the  cottage,  the  story  says,  told  him 
his  fortune,  as  Barbour  describes,  and  brought 
him  her  two  sons  to  aid  in  the  great  fight 
for  the  throne.  The  cottage  is  said  to  have 
stood  close  by  the  standing  -  stone  which 
marks  the  place  of  his  departure  for  the 
Carrick  coast. 


THE    RED    LIGHT    ON    TURNBERRY    BEACON 

It  was  from  the  walls  of  Brodick  that  he 
watched  for  the  red  light  on  Turnberry  beacon 
which  was  to  lead  him  forth  to  many  perilous 
adventures.  For  one  day  the  king  decided 
to  send  a  man  to  his  own  realm  of  Carrick — 

"  To  spy  and  speir  how  the  kingdom 
Is  led,  or  who  is  friend  or  foe, 
And  if  he  sees  we  land  may  too, 
On  Turnberry's  snook*  he  may 
Make  a  fire  on  a  certain  day, 
As  token  to  us  that  we  may 
There  arrive  into  safety." 

The  king  then  sent  one  Cuthbert,  a  native 
of  Carrick,  who  found,  however,  that  few 

*  A  small  promontory  or  head. 


196  ARRAN 

spoke  well  of  the  Bruce  in  Carrick,  and  that 
the  land,  both  high  and  low,  hill  and  valley, 
was  occupied  by  Englishmen, 

"That  despised  above  all  thing 
Robert  the  Bruce,  the  doughty  king." 

He  saw  that  in  Turnberry  Castle  was  the 
Lord  Percy  with  three  hundred  men,  so  he 
decided  not  to  light  the  fire,  but  to  return  to 
his  master. 

"The  king  that  into  Arane  lay, 
When  that  coming  was  the  day, 
That  he  gave  to  his  messenger. 

After  the  fire  he  looked  fast, 

And  as  soon  as  the  noon  was  past 

He  thought  that  he  saw  a  fire, 

By  Turnberry  burning  weill  schyre  ; 

And  to  his  men  he  can  it  show 

Every  man  thought  that  he  it  saw. 

Then  with  blithe  heart  the  folk  began  to  cry, 

'  Good  king,  speed  you  deliuerly, 

So  that  we  soon  in  the  evening 

Arrive,  without  perceiving.' 

Then  in  short  time  men  might  them  see 
Shoot  all  their  galleys  to  the  sea." 

And  as  the  king  was  walking  up  and  down 
on  the  shore  at  Whiting  Bay,  opposite  the 
Castle  of  Turnberry,  while  his  men  were 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE     197 

making  all  ready,  his  hostess  came  to  him 
and  told  him  his  fortune.  She  warns  him 
of  terrible  things  that  he  must  go  through, 
but  says  that  no  might  or  strength  of  hand 
shall  send  him  forth  again  out  of  his  land  : — 

"Within  short  time  ye  shall  be  king, 
And  have  the  land  at  your  liking, 
And  overcome  your  foemen  all." 

And  then,  to  show  how  much  she  believed 
her  own  prophecy,  she  gave  him  her  two 
sons  to  accompany  him.  The  king  thanked 
her,  and  was  comforted,  though  not  quite  con- 
vinced ;  for,  as  the  old  poet  says  : — 

"  Indeed  it  is  wonderful,  perfay, 
How  any  man  through  stars  may 
Know  the  things  that  are  to  come, 
Determinedly,  all  or  some. 

But  me  think  it  were  great  mastery 

For  any  astrologer  to  say 

This  shall  fall  here  and  on  this  day." 

Barbour  says  when  the  king  left — 

"This  was  in  spring,  when  winter-tide 
With  his  blasts,  hideous  to  bide, 
Was  overpast,  and  birdis  smale, 
The  thristill  and  the  nightingale, 
Began  right  merrily  to  sing. 


I98  ARRAN 

Into  that  time  the  noble  king, 
With  his  fleet  and  a  few  menyie, 
Three  hunder  I  trow  they  might  well  be, 
Was  to  the  sea  furth  of  Arane." 

They  rowed  across  without  compass, 
keeping  the  fire  always  in  view ;  and  there 
Cuthbert  awaited  them,  full  of  fear,  for  the 
fire,  he  said,  had  not  been  kindled  by  him,  and 
all  the  country  was  full  of  Bruce's  foes.  They 
held  counsel,  and  Edward  Bruce,  the  king's 
brother,  settled  matters  by  refusing  to  go 
back. 

* 

THE  BRANDANES  AT  BANNOCKBURN 

Then  Angus  rose — "Lead  on,  brave  Bruce, 
The  foemen  who  thy  footsteps  cross 

In  silence  wrapped  shall  sleep  to-night, 
Or  hie  them  back  owre  Milton  Moss. 

Here  stand  arrayed  my  Hielan  men, 
From  yon  green  islands  by  Kintyre ; 

Clan  Cholla  and  the  brave  Brandanes  ; 
Cold  is  their  steel — their  hearts  are  fire  ! 

They  stand  arrayed  to  win  or  die ; 

As  on  its  prey  the  grey  gled  springs 
So  shall  their  claymores  swiftly  strike 

For  honour  of  a  race  of  kings." 

They  charge  !   MacDonald  and  MacCug, 
MacBride,  MacKinnon  and  MacLoy, 

Shoulder  to  shoulder,  foot  to  foot, 
Like  some  wild  torrent  mad  with  joy. 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE     199 

And  who  shall  stand  and  stem  that  flood? 

Back  to  the  burn  the  foe  they  fling ; 
Horo  !    Hera  !   the  day  is  ours, 

And  Randolph  breaks  their  wav'ring  wing. 

Then,  'mid  the  din  of  splintering  lance 

And  crash  of  axe  on  iron  mail, 
Down  all  Clan  Cholla's  kilted  ranks 

The  cry  arose,  "  They  fail !   they  fail ! " 

And  thus  they  shattered  Edward's  might, 
That  we,  their  children,  should  be  free, 

To  wanton  in  the  wind  that  sweeps 

Our  islands  by  the  western  sea. — M'K.  M'B. 

Angus  appears  to  have  joined  Bruce  at  the 
Torwood,  near  Falkirk,  and  it  was  there  that 
the  king  addressed  to  him  the  famous  words 
quoted  by  Sir  Walter  Scott :  "  My  hope  is 
constant  in  thee." 

Bruce's  army  at  Bannockburn  consisted  of 
30,000  men,  according  to  Barbour,  and  the 
king  divided  them  into  four  "  battels,"  or 
divisions  :  Randolph  led  the  vanguard,  Sir 
Edward  Bruce  the  second  division,  the 
Steward,  then  a  boy,  with  Douglas  led  the 
third  division,  and 

"The  fourth  battel  the  noble  king 
Took  to  himself  in  governing  ; 
And  had  intill  his  company 
The  men  of  Carrick  all  halely, 
And  of  Argyle  and  of  Kentyr, 


200  ARRAN 

And  of  the  Isles,  whereof  was  Sir 
Angus  of  Isla  and  Bute,  all  they. 
He  of  the  plain  land  had  alsua 
Of  armyt  men  a  meikle  rout" 

The  description  of  the  battle  is  well  done 
by  Barbour,  and  full  of  detail  probably  taken 
down  from  the  tongues  of  people  who  had 
actually  been  in  the  fight.  A  touch  of  humour 
is  given  by  a  wise  old  knight,  Sir  Ingraham 
Umfraville,  who  fears  the  men  who  would 
fight  on  foot,  and  suggests  to  Edward  that  he 
might  win  the  battle  by  ordering  his  army  to 
retire  behind  their  pavilions  and  tents,  and  so 
tempt  the  enemy  to  leave  their  strong  posi- 
tion. He  had  evidently  had  experience  of  the 
Scots  ;  he  said  to  the  king — 

£"You  shall  see  that  they, 

Despite  their  lords,  shall  break  away 
And  scale*  them  our  harness  to  take. 
And  when  we  see  them  scaled  away, 
Prik  we  on  them  hardily." 

The  men  of  Randolph  and  Douglas  and 
Edward  Bruce  soon  got  to  blows  with  the 
enemy,  and  so  eagerly  the  Scots  fought, 

"  That  they  made  neither  noise  nor  cry 
But  dang  on  the  other  at  their  might." 

*  Disperse. 


WHITING  BAY  FROM  THE 
KILDONAN  ROAD 

Front  a  painting  by 
J.  LAWTON  IV ING  ATE,  R.S.A. 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE     201 

And  when  Bruce  saw  all  his  three  divisions 
doing  well,  he  brought  in  "the  Westland 
men  "  with  their  terrible  axes. 

"  So  great  dinging  there  was  of  dints 
As  weapons  upon  weapon  stints, 
And  of  spears  so  great  brusting, 
With  such  throwing  and  such  thrusting, 
Such  girning  and  groaning,  and  so  great 
A  noise,  as  they  can  other  beat 

That  it  was  hideous  for  to  hear." 

At  Bannockburn,  in  addition  to  Islesmen 
and  Highlanders  under  Angus  of  Isla  and 
Kintyre,  Major  tells  us  that  in  the  force  under 
Douglas  and  Randolph,  Bruce  put  "  seven 
thousand  of  the  Border  youth,  who  from  their 
earliest  years  had  known  no  occupation  than 
fighting ;  along  with  these  he  joined  three 
thousand  Wild  Scots,  whose  arms  consisted 
of  a  two-edged  battle-axe,^  equally  sharp  on 
both  sides  ;  men,  these  last,  who  will  rush 
upon  the  enemy  with  the  fury  of  a  lioness  in 
fear  for  her  cubs."  Again  he  says  :  "  The 
Wild  Scots  rushed  upon  them  in  their  fury 

*  These  axes  seem  to  have  been  different  from  the  usual 
single-edged  Lochaber  axe  of  the  West  Highlands,  if  Major 
is  correct. 


202  ARRAN 

as  wild  boars  do  :  hardly  would  any  weapon 
make  stand  against  their  axes,  handled  as 
they  knew  to  handle  them  ;  all  around  them 
was  a  very  shambles  of  dead  men,  and  when, 
stung  by  wounds,  they  were  yet  unable  by 
reason  of  the  long  staves  of  the  enemy  to 
come  to  close  quarters,  they  threw  off  their 
plaids,  and,  as  their  custom  was,  did  not 
hesitate  to  offer  their  naked  bellies  to  the 
point  of  the  spear.  Now  in  close  contact 
with  the  foe,  no  thought  is  theirs  but  of 
the  glorious  death  that  awaited  them  if  only 
they  could  compass  his  death  too.  Once 
entered  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  even  as 
one  sheep  will  follow  another,  so  they,  and 
hold  cheap  their  lives.  The  whole  plain  is 
red  with  blood  ;  from  the  higher  parts  to  the 
lower  blood  flows  in  streams.  In  blood  the 
heroes  fought,  yea  knee-deep." 

It  would  have  been  interesting  to  know 
from  which  part  of  Scotland  the  particular 
men  Major  refers  to  came.  He  probably 
refers  only  to  the  general  custom  amongst 
them. 

In  Bruce's  six  invasions  of  England  which 


SHELTER  OF  KING  ROBERT  BRUCE     203 

followed  Bannockburn,  it  is  probable  that  the 
Brandanes  were  present. 

Bruce  lived  for  a  time  in  Arran  in  1326 
with  Menteith,  who  had  long  since  come  over 
to  his  cause,  and  the  king  gave  him  back  his 
Arran  lordship,  and  also  conferred  upon  him 
the  district  of  Knapdale. 


PART   IX 

WHAT  THE   BRANDANES   DID 
FOR  THE   STEWARTS 


CHAPTER   XX 

WHAT  THE  BRANDANES  DID  FOR  THE 
STEWARTS 

THE    BATTLE   OF   THE   STONES 

THE  Brandanes  followed  Robert  Bruce  to 
Tarbert,  and  were  with  the  Steward  in  his 
raids  into  England  at  Byland  and  at  York, 
where  the  English  Queen  came  so  near  to 
being  captured.  They  were  also  with  him  at  the 
desperate  siege  of  Berwick  in  1319 ;  but  the 
greatest  of  their  services  to  his  house  was  at 
the  "  Battle  of  the  Stones." 

When  Robert  Bruce  died  in  1329,  at  only 
fifty  years  of  age,  his  son  David  was  a  boy 
of  only  six  years,  and  Scotland  was  again 
plunged  into  trouble  by  the  ambition  of 
Edward  HI.  of  England,  who  at  once  com- 
menced his  grandfather's  old  tactics,  disregard- 
ing the  treaty  of  perpetual  peace  between  the 

307 


208  ARRAN 

two  countries  which  had  been  signed  in  1328. 
The  treaty  had  been  full  of  promise  for  little 
Scotland  as  a  nation,  though  it  meant  bad 
times  for  Border  reiver  and  Highland  cateran, 
who  had  enriched  themselves  so  often  by  the 
national  pastime  of  a  raid  into  England, 
during  Bruce's  reign. 

Edward  quietly  put  up  Edward  Baliol  as 
king,  and  bribed  the  easily  purchased  nobles 
of  Scotland  to  lend  him  their  aid  when  he 
sent  Baliol  with  an  army  to  invade  Scotland. 
Baliol  was  crowned  at  Scone,  but  the  Scottish 
people  were  roused,  and  gathering  an  army 
they  invaded  England.  At  the  famous  battle 
of  Halidon  Hill  they  got  well  beaten,  for 
there  they  forgot  "  Bruce's  Testament,"  in 
which  he  told  them  always  to  avoid  the 
tented  field,  the  formal  pitched  battle,  and  to 
adopt  always  the  tactics  of  what  we  would 
to-day  call  the  guerilla  chief.  At  Halidon 
Hill  the  Brandanes  were  almost  annihilated. 

The  King  of  England  then  again  invaded 
Scotland  on  the  rejection  of  Baliol  by  the 
Scots,  and  reached  Glasgow  with  a  large 
army.  He  sent  his  fleet  into  the  Firth  of 


BRANDANES  AND  STEWARTS          209 

Forth,  and  made  the  Earl  of  Athol  Guardian 
and  Governor  of  the  kingdom.  Athol  then 
summoned  the  freeholders  of  the  Stewart- 
lands — that  is,  in  the  south,  in  Renfrew,  Ayr, 
Carrick,  Galloway,  Selkirk,  and  so  on,  and, 
having  made  them  swear  fealty  to  Baliol,  he 
marched  into  the  Highlands,  and  "there  was 
no  one  who  durst  gainsay  him  or  proclaim 
himself  Bruce's  man." 


THE    STEWARD  S    ESCAPE    FROM    ROTHESAY 
CASTLE 

About  the  same  time  the  young  Robert 
Stewart,  heir  to  the  throne,  who  was  then 
fifteen  years  old,  was  still,  for  fear  of  the 
enemy,  lurking  in  concealment  in  Rothesay 
Castle,  and  was  deriving  great  comfort  from, 
and  having  frequent  conversations  with,  "  two 
lovers  of  peace,  friends  of  King  David," 
John  MacGilbride,  Captain  of  Bute,  and 
William  Heriot,  then  sojourning  in  the 
barony ;  and  they  found  means  to  take  him 
over  to  Dunbarton  Castle,  bringing  with  them 
the  charters  of  Stewartland. 
14 


210  ARRAN 

Stewart,  finding  his  position  still  dangerous, 
and  resenting  the  conduct  of  Athol  in  laying 
claim  to  the  Stewart  patrimony,  took  action, 
sent  for  his  friend  the  Lord  of  Lochawe,  and 
soon  captured  Dunoon  Castle.  Holinshead 
(1585)  thus  describes  the  famous  Battle  of 
the  Stones,  which  was  one  of  the  greatest 
of  all  the  services  of  the  Brandani  to  the 
house  of  Stewart. 

"  Incontinently,  therefore,  Robert  Steward 
assembled  his  friends  by  the  help  of  Dungall 
Campbell  of  Lochquhow,  and  suddenly  took 
the  Castell  of  Dunoon,  sleaing  all  the  English- 
men and  others  who  were  found  therein.  .  .  . 
The  commons  of  Bute  and  Arran,  glad  of  this 
prosperous  beginning,  assembled  together  to 
the  number  of  400  persons,  and  set  forward, 
that  they  might  come  to  support  Robert 
Steward  in  such  his  late  begun  enterprizes  : 
and  being  incountered  by  the  way  by  Alane 
Lile,  shiriff  of  Bute,  they  laid  so  lustilie  about 
them,  that  they  slue  the  shiriffe  (taking 
prisoner  John  Gilbert,  captaine  of  the  Castell 
of  Bute)  there  in  the  field,  and  discomfited 
all  his  people,  which  they  did  after  this  manner. 


BRANDANES  AND  STEWARTS          211 

These  people  of  Bute  (called  the  servants  of 
Bawdanus),  seeing  such  sturs  to  be  made  by 
Alan  Lile,  ran  to  a  heap  of  stones  not  far 
from  them,  and  with  great  force  pelting  the 
sheriffe,  they  in  the  end  killed  him  with  stones, 
and  put  the  rest  to  flight.  Divers  of  them, 
taken  prisoners,  were  brought  away,  and  pre- 
sented to  Robert  Steward." 

The  Book  of  Pluscarden  gives  a  few 
further  particulars  of  this  interesting  fight.  It 
says  that  when  the  natives  of  the  county 
heard  that  their  lord  Robert  Stewart  had  thus 
entered  their  country,  "there  flocked  to  him 
...  a  people  called  the  B  randans,  who  came 
to  his  assistance  of  their  own  accord." 

"  The  sheriff  of  the  county  of  Bute,  Alan 
Lisle,  then  tried  to  hem  the  Brandans  in  on 
all  sides  in  a  narrow  pass,  and  commenced  to 
kill  them  without  mercy.  They,  seeing  them- 
selves unarmed  and  surrounded  by  armed 
men,  posted  themselves  in  a  strong  place,  and, 
waiting  the  attack,  commenced  to  shower 
stones  upon  the  sheriff  and  his  men,  till  they 
had  killed  Lyle  and  many  others,  and  the  rest 
of  his  army  took  to  flight.  They  then  cut  the 


ai2  ARRAN 

sheriff's  head  off  and  presented  it  to  the 
Stewart,  and  also  took  prisoner  John  Gilbert- 
son,  the  captain  of  Bute." 

This  appears  to  be  the  same  Gilbertson  or 
MacGilbride  who  had  secretly,  with  Heriot, 
rowed  the  Steward  to  Dunbarton  Castle.  He 
had  evidently  been  made  to  swear  allegiance 
to  Baliol,  like  many  more,  against  his  will. 
Gilbertson,  weare  told,*  surrendered  the  Castle 
of  Bute  and  did  homage  to  the  Steward  as 
"  his  natural  lord,"  which,  with  his  local  name, 
certainly  means  that  he  was  a  native. 

From  him  branches  of  the  MacBride  and 
Bannatyne  families  claim  descent.  Thus 
genial  Robert  was  able  to  make  a  stand  in 
the  West,  and  was  there  joined  by  many 
friends,  including  Thomas  Bruce  and  the 
men  of  Kyle. 

For  this  most  notable  service  of  the  Bran- 
danes,  Holinshead  adds  that  Stewart,  "in 
recompense  of  this  service,  granted  sundrie 
privileges  unto  the  inhabitants  of  Bute  and 
Arran  :  as,  among  other  things,  to  be  free  from 
paying  tribute  for  their  corn  and  grain.  Such 

*  Book  of  Pluscarden. 


BRANDANES  AND  STEWARTS          213 

felicities  succeeding  one  another,  caused  many 
of  the  Scots  to  join  themselves  with  Robert 
Steward,  in  hope  to  recover  the  realm  out  of 
the  Englishmen's  hands." 

Save  Halidon  Hill,  the  Scots  had  been 
successful  in  all  their  raids,  and  Edward  got 
little  from  his  invasions  till  at  Neville's  Cross, 
where  the  Brandani  were  also  present,  David 
ii.,  then  a  youth  of  eighteen,  refusing  the  ad- 
vice of  experienced  men,  suffered  utter  defeat. 
The  Scots  army,  gathered  from  Highlands 
and  Lowlands,  made  a  hasty  retreat  to  the 
fortresses  of  the  Border  country,  and  King 
David  was  carried  captive  into  England  by 
one  Sir  John  Copeland,  an  English  knight. 

THE    KING'S    BODYGUARD 

Robert  n.  did  not  forget  the  Brandani,  and 
he  made  them  his  bodyguard  and  gave  them 
charters  for  their  lands,  one  of  which,  dated  in 
the  second  year  of  his  reign,  is  still  possessd  by 
the  head  of  the  ancient  family  of  MacLoy  or 
MacLouie  of  Kilmichael  and  Whitefarland, 
who  took  the  name  of  Fullarton  probably  from 
the  Ayrshire  estate  of  that  name. 


214  ARRAN 

THE    BATTLES    OF    WILLIAM   THE    LYON    AND 
THE    DISASTER    AT    PINKIE 

The  men  of  the  South  Isles  were  probably 
amongst  the  Highland  Scots  and  Galloway 
men  who  followed  William  the  Lyon  in  his 
two  attempts  to  recover  Northumberland  and 
Cumberland,  which  had  been  won  for  Scot- 
land by  David  i.  and  foolishly  made  over  to 
Henry,  the  English  king,  by  treaty  of 
Malcolm  the  Maiden,  a  mere  boy.  William 
was  taken  prisoner  when  jousting  with  a 
small  party  of  knights.  Immediately  the 
Gaelic  people  of  Scotland,  indignant  at  the 
encroachments  of  feudalism  and  the  fondness 
of  the  Scottish  monarchs  for  foreign  knights 
and  nobles,  massacred  the  Normans  and 
English,  and  made  what  Fordun  calls  "a 
most  woeful  and  exceeding  great  persecution 
of  the  English,  both  in  Scotia  and  Galloway." 
The  island  of  Arran  had  reverted  to  the  Stew- 
arts, and  the  sheriffship  of  Arran  and  Bute 
was  given  by  Robert  n.  to  his  natural  son, 
the  ancestor  of  the  present  Sir  Hugh  Shaw 
Stewartof  Ardgowan  and  Blackball.  Stewart's 


BRANDANES  AND  STEWARTS         215 

second  son  was  keeper  of  Brodick  Castle  in 
1445-50,  and  received  for  the  office  the  sum 
of  £20  anually,  with  the  revenues  of  some 
crown  lands  in  the  island. 

A  little  later  the  chiefs  of  Kintyre  and 
their  men  paid  Arran  a  number  of  visits,  in 
which  they  took  away  with  them  many  un- 
considered  trifles,  quite  in  the  old  spirit  of 
the  Gall  Gael.  The  castles  of  the  island, 
Lochranza,  Brodick,  and  Kildonan  were 
fortified  and  garrisoned,  and  a  number  of 
galleys  were  held  in  readiness  by  the  Arran 
lairds.  In  1455  the  famous  Donald  Balloch 
sacked  and  dismantled  Brodick,  and  in  1462 
came  the  invasion  of  the  Earl  of  Ross  and 
the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  their  object,  according 
to  Gregory,  being  to  upset  the  Scottish 
monarchy. 

The  island  of  Arran  was  always  an  impor- 
tant place,  the  prop  of  thrones,  the  refuge  of 
kings,  the  cradle  of  fighting  men,  the  prize  of 
the  liberator  ;  but  of  course  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  not  entirely  situated  in  Brodick 
Castle,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  these 
gentlemen,  with  all  their  expert  knowledge 


2i6  ARRAN 

of  raids  and  rebellions,  could  expect  to  win 
the  Scottish  crown  by  capturing  even  that 
mainstay  of  royalty  !  Their  navy  was  com- 
posed of  the  enormous  number  of  five  hundred 
galleys  belonging  to  the  Lord  of  the  Isles.  As 
Mr.  MacArthur  puts  it  with  unconscious 
humour :  "  Though  the  expedition  failed  to 
disturb  the  independence  of  Scotland,  it  was 
most  disastrous  in  its  results  on  the  islets  of 
the  Clyde." 

The  islanders  and  west  Highlanders  gener- 
ally were  present  to  the  number  of  four 
thousand  at  the  disastrous  battle  of  Pinkie 
in  1547.  Beague,  a  Frenchman,  who  was 
an  eye-witness,  says  :  "The  Highlanders,  who 
show  courage  on  all  occasions,  gave  proof  of 
their  conduct  at  this  time,  for  they  kept  together 
in  one  body,  and  made  a  very  handsome  and 
orderly  retreat.  They  are  armed  with  broad- 
swords, large  bows,  and  targets." 

Only  the  year  previous  the  islands  of  Bute 
and  Arran  had  been  burnt  by  the  English, 
assisted  by  MacNeill  of  Barra,  and  at  this 
time  the  position  of  the  Hamiltons  was 
rendered  precarious  and  unpleasant  from 


THE  APPROACH  OF  NIGHT:  OVER 
THE  SOUND  OF  KILBRANNAN 

from  a  fainting  by 
J.  LA  WTON  WING  A  TE,  R.S.A. 


BRANDANES  AND  STEWARTS         217 

these  raids,  as  is  shown  by  the  various 
bonds  they  made  with  the  Arran  lairds,  the 
MacAllisters,  MacCooks,  MacDavids,  Mac- 
Brides,  MacKinnons,  MacKilgirs,  MacCairlies, 
MacDonalds,  and  others,  for  mutual  defence 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  not  many  years  after 
their  acquisition  of  the  island. 


PART   X 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE  LATER  LORDS  OF  ARRAN 

THE    BOYDS 

IN  1465  Arran  once  more  changed  its  rulers, 
for  it  was  given  to  the  noted  Regent,  Lord 
Boyd,  the  man  who  had  made  his  fortune  by 
audaciously  marrying  his  son  to  the  Princess 
Mary,  sister  of  the  king.  Young  Boyd  was 
made  Earl  of  Arran,  and  received  the  island 
as  a  marriage  portion.  The  Regent  became 
extraordinarily  unpopular,  being  regarded  as 
an  upstart  by  the  nobility,  and  he  was  ruined 
and  disgraced,  so  that  his  son  fled,  and  all  his 
honours  were  confiscated  and  bestowed  upon 
the  king's  eldest  son,  afterwards  James  iv. 

THE    HAMILTONS 

The    keepership   of    Brodick    Castle   and 
certain    farms   in    Arran    were    granted   to 


222  ARRAN 

Hugh,  Lord  Montgomery,  by  James  iv.  in 
1488.  In  1503  James,  Lord  Hamilton, 
husband  of  the  Princess  Mary,  widow  of  the 
Earl  of  Arran,  was  made  Earl  of  Arran,  and 
to  him  were  granted  the  Castle  of  Brodick  and 
the  crown  lands  of  the  island.  1506  was  the 
year  of  the  general  charter  to  the  crown 
tenants  of  Bute,  and  in  this  year  some  of  the 
Kintyre  clans,  chiefly  the  MacKays,  made  a 
raid  upon  the  island.  In  1528  the  castle  was 
burnt  down  by  the  Argyll  clans,  but  was 
rebuilt  by  James  v.,  who  was  a  frequent  visitor 
to  the  island. 

In  1544  Henry  vm.  sent  a  fleet  of  ships 
under  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  which  captured  and 
razed  to  the  ground  the  oft-razed  castle  of 
Brodick,  and  plundered  the  whole  island. 
Making  an  Englishman,  Sir  Rice  Mansell, 
governor,  they  also  took  "  Rosie  "  castle,  and 
made  the  captain  prisoner.  Brodick  was 
again  rebuilt  and  again  raided,  and  taken  by 
another  English  expedition,  this  time  under 
the  Earl  of  Sussex  with  a  party  of  Irish. 

In  1579  the  great  power  of  the  Hamiltons 
caused  so  much  jealousy  at  court  that  they 


THE  LATER  LORDS  OF  ARRAN   223 

were  deprived  of  their  estates,  and  Ninian 
Stewart,  nephew  of  King  James  vi.,  was  made 
keeper  of  Brodick.  The  title  of  Earl  of 
Arran  was  given  to  James  Stewart  of 
Ochiltree,  a  favourite  of  the  king,  who  com- 
mitted so  many  crimes  that  the  king  was 
ultimately  forced  to  abandon  him,  and  his 
lordship  of  Arran  reverted  to  the  Hamiltons, 
in  whose  hands  it  has  remained  since. 


"LADY  MARY 

The  most  popular  proprietor  the  island 
has  ever  known  is  undoubtedly  the  present 
one,  Lady  Mary  Douglas  Hamilton,  only 
child  of  the  twelfth  duke.  She  married  the 
Marquis  of  Graham  in  1906,  and  she  and 
her  husband  are  much  attached  to  their 
many-memoried  island  home.  The  Grahams 
from  the  time  of  the  great  and  chivalrous 
Marquis,  of  Inverlochy  fame,  always  got  on 
well  with  the  Highland  folk,  and  Arran  was 
never  so  contented  or  so  prosperous  as  at 
present. 


INDEX 


Alexander  ill.,  King,atLargs, 

149. 
his  high  qualities  as  ruler, 

1 60. 
Am  Bhinnean  from  the  Corrie 

shore,  6. 

Arran,  agriculture,  state  of, 
in  eighteenth  century, 
54-56. 

Bruce  in,  14. 
Burrell's  improvements  in, 

43- 

charm  of,  3. 
committee,    members    of, 

in  1770,  49- 
Cromwell  and,  17. 
ethnology  of,  80. 
in  the  eighteenth  century, 

40. 

language  of,  80. 
mountains  of,  5. 
people,  condition  of,  in 

1 8 10,  59. 

preachers,  famous,  52. 
rent-roll  of,  in  1778,  61. 
romances  of,  12. 
runrig  system  in,  47. 
Athelstan,  King,  at  Brunan- 

burh,  10. 

Balfour,  J.   A.,  on  the  word 

Brandan,  77. 
on  SL  Brendan's  cell,  78. 

15 


Balloch,     Donald,     attacks 

the  isles,  215. 
Bannatyne    family,    descent 

of,   72. 
Barbour's      "  Brus,"      195  - 

197. 
Barons  of  Arran  and  Bute, 

70. 
Boyle,  Hon.  Robert,  hides  at 

Auchaleffan,  66. 
"  Brandane,"  meaning  of  the 
word,  Book  of  Arran  on, 
77- 
Fullarton,  on  meaning  of 

word,  77. 
Rev.    Neil   MacBride    on 

meaning  of  word,  77. 
Brandanes,  the,  at  battle  of 

Bannockburn,  198. 
at  battle  of  Falkirk,  169. 
at  battle  of  Halidon  Hill, 

208. 
at  battle  of  Neville's  Cross, 

213- 

at  battle  of  Pinkie,  214. 
at  "  Battle  of  the  Stones," 

210. 
at  battle  of  Stirling  Bridge, 

1 60. 
at     Perth    with    Wallace, 

183. 

follow   William  the  Lyon, 
214. 


226 


INDEX 


Brandanes,    the,    form    the 
King's  bodyguard,  213. 
slay  the   sheriff  of  Bute, 

210. 

under  Wallace,  166. 
what    they     did     for    the 

Stewarts,  207. 
Brannan  MacLir,  79. 
Brendan,    St.,    of    Clonfert, 

78. 

cell  of,  in  Arran,  78. 
cell  of,  in  Kintyre,  78. 
Brian,  King,  of  Munster,  his 

good  nature,  13. 
Brodick  Castle,  189. 
attack    on    men    of,    by 

Douglas,  194. 
captured  by  Bruce,  194. 
Bronze  Age  burials  in  Arran, 

96. 
Brown  or  MacBraon  family, 

4- 
Thomas,  member  of  Arran 

committee  of  1770,  48. 
Bruce  at  Bannockburn,  198. 
at  Glen  Cloy  and  Druma- 

doon,  193-194. 
at  King's  Cross,  194. 
invades  England,  292. 
lands  in  Arran,  193. 
leaves  for  Turnberry,  195. 
treaty  of  perpetual   peace 

with  England,  208. 
Brunanburh,  battle  of,  126. 
Burrell,  John,    his  improve- 
ments in  Arran,  43. 
his  diary,  54. 
Bute  charter  of  1 506,  70. 

Caisteal  Abhail  mountain,  5. 
Canada,   lower,   Arran   men 

settle  in,  57. 
Castle  of   Arran   (Brodick), 

27. 


Castle  of  Arran,  granted   to 

Montgomery,  29. 
keepers  of,  28. 
Lochranza,       given       by 
Menteith    to   Campbell, 
of  Lochawe,  29. 
rebuilding  of,  27. 
Caves,  Bennan  Head,  ancient 

remains  found  at,  33. 
Drumadoon        associated 
with     Bruce    and    with 
Fion,  31. 
Kilpatrick,  the  "  Preaching 

Cave,"  32. 
Kilpatrick,  school  held  in, 

32. 
Ceum  na  Cailleach  mountain, 

5- 
Chaleur  Bay,  settlement  of 

Arran  men  at,  7. 
Chapels,  Arran,  21. 

Kilbride,  granted  by  John 

of  Menteith  to  monks  of 

Kilwinning,  21,  22. 

Kilbride,  removal  of  ancient 

sculptured    cross    from, 

23- 

Kilmichael,  Glen  Cloy,  25. 

Kilmory,  23. 

Kilmory,  granted  to  monks 

of  Kilwinning,  23. 
Kilpatrick,  25. 
Sannox,  26. 
Shisken,  25. 
Charters   granted   to  Arran 

men  by  Robert  II.,  73. 
Cioch  nan  h'oige  mountain, 

its  changing   character, 

5- 

Cir  Mhor  mountain,  5. 
Clontarf,  battle  of,  129. 
Cook  family,  see  MacCug. 
Corrie,  7. 
high,  80. 


INDEX 


227 


Corrie,  Killing  Stone  at,  18. 
Couper,  George,  member  of 

Arran      committee      of 

1770,  48. 
Craig,  Peter,  his  school  in  the 

Kilpatrick  cave,  32. 
Craig   na   Cuiroch,    fort   of, 

107. 

Crawford  family,  71,  75. 
now    custodians    of    Baul 

Muluy,  33. 
Patrick,     prize-winner     in 

1777,  5°- 

Cromwell  and  Arran,  17. 
his    fear    of    the    Dutch 

seizing  the  islands,  17. 
his   soldiers  killed  by  the 

Arran  men,  17. 
Currie  family,  71. 
John,  prize-winner  in  1776, 
50. 

Dalriadic   colony,   its   great 

promise,  13. 
Davidson  family,  see  under 

MacDavid. 
Douglas,  Sir  James,  lands  in 

Arran,  191. 
his   ambush    at    Brodick, 

192. 
Drumadoon,  fort  at,  104. 

caves  at,  31. 
Dun  Fion,  fort  at,  106. 

Edward  I.  of  England,  how 

he  persecuted  the  Scots, 

161. 

his  award  to  Baliol,  163. 
his    conduct  at    Berwick, 

164. 
Edward      in.    breaks     the 

treaty  of  perpetual  peace, 

208. 
Ethnology  of  Arran,  96. 


Evictions  in  Arran,  57,  58, 

59- 
in    Highlands,  Somerville 

on,  64. 
in   Highlands,  MacKenzie 

on,  64. 
in  Highlands,  Dr.  Donald 

MacLeod  on,  64. 

Falkirk,    Brandanes   at   the 

battle  of,  169. 
Families,  old,  in  Arran,  69. 

their  ancient  rights,  46. 
Feudal  system,  evil  influence 

of,  161. 
how  it  enslaved  the  people, 

162. 

Fionn,    mythological     char- 
acter, 1 6. 
his  name  in  word  Arran, 

1 6. 

his  cave  at  Drumadoon,  32. 
legends  of,  in  Arran,  16. 
Forts   and    camps,   ancient, 

104. 

Fullarton,  see  MacLouie,  71, 
75- 

Gall   Gael,  meaning   of  the 

word,  123. 

Geology  of  Arran,  30. 
Glen  Ashdale,  fort  in,  105. 
Glen  Cloy,  Bruce  in,  14. 

in  Pennant's  time,  15. 
Glenrickard,      meaning      of 

name,  15. 
Glen  Sannox  scenery,  5. 

Chapel,  26. 

hills,  6. 

Killing  Stone  at,  18. 
Goatfell,  from  Brodick  lanes, 

7- 

murder  of  E.  R.  Rose  on, 
26. 


228 


INDEX 


Godred  Crovan,  original  of 

Hamlet,  130. 

defeated  by  Somerled,  135. 
his  tyranny,  134. 
the    Black   King  of  Man 

and  the  Isles,  133. 
Gow,  David,  poem  by,  8. 

Hakon  of  Norway  at  Lam- 
lash,  10. 

defeat  of,  by  Alexander,  10. 
Hamilton,  Duke  of,  killed  at 

Worcester,  18. 
sends     letter     to     Prince 

Charles  Edward,  65. 
sympathy  with   the  Stew- 
arts, 65. 

Hamilton,  Lady  Mary, 
marries  the  Marquis  of 
Graham,  223. 

Hamilton,  Lord  James, 
marries  the  King's  sister, 

222. 

Hamilton,  Marquis  of  loyal 

to  Charles  I.,  17. 
beheaded,  17. 
Hamilton,  Patrick,   member 

Arran  committee,   1770, 

48. 
John,       member       Arran 

committee,  1770,  48. 
John,      member       Arran 

committee,  1770,  48. 
Hamiltons       deprived       of 

their  titles  and  estates 

in  1579,223. 
get     grant     of     Brodick 

Castle  and  Crown  lands 

in  Arran  in  1503,  222. 
made  Earls  of  Arran,  222. 
restored     to    their    titles, 

223. 
Harald    Harfaager    in     the 

Hebrides,  117. 


Henderson,  Rev.  George,  on 
Norse  influence  on 
Scotland,  122. 

Holy  Island,  charm  of,  10. 
cave    of    Molios   and    its 
runic  inscription,  11. 

Hunter  family,  71,  75. 

Intermarrying  in  Arran, 
statement  regarding,  63. 

lona,  Christians  of,  116. 
monastery  of,    sacked    by 
Norsemen,  123. 

Johnson,  A.  H.,  on  the 
Northmen,  124. 

Kappey,   F.    E.,   sonnet    on 

Arran,  i. 

Kelso  family,  71,  75. 
Kennedy  family,  71,  75. 
Kerr  family,  71,  75. 
Kilbride  graveyard,  22. 

ancient  cross  from,  23. 
Kilmichael  in  Glen  Cloy,  15. 

Fullartons  of,  14. 

remains  of,  at  Shisken,  25. 

Language  of  Arran,  the  im- 
portance of  preserving 
it,  81. 

Largs,  battle  of,  143. 
Alexander's  tactics  at,  149. 

MacAllister  family,  71,  75. 
Hector,  member  of  Arran 

committee  of  1770,  48. 
John  (Rev.),  life  of,  53. 
MacArthur,   Rev.   John,  his 

book  on  Arran,  56. 
on   the   old   Arran   lands, 

60. 

MacBraon,  MacBrayne,  or 
Brown  family,  71. 


INDEX 


229 


MacBride,  Neil  (Rev.),  mini- 
ster of  Kilmory,  53. 
family,  71,  75. 
Neil  (Rev.),  Lamlash,   on 
the  old   Arran  Barons, 

73- 
on    the    meaning    of   the 

word  Brandani,  77. 
MacBride,  Alexander  (Rev.), 
his  New  Statistical  Ac- 
count of  Kilmory  Parish, 

57- 
on    the    Arran    evictions, 

57- 
Charles  of  Shedag  and  St. 

Molios  Chapel,  23. 
Duncan,    member    Arran 

committee  of  1770,  48. 
James   (writer),  on   Arran 
and  "  the  Forty-five,"  65. 
MacCug  or  MacCook  family 
of  Bennicarigan,  71,  75. 
Archibald,  preacher,  53. 
Finlay,  preacher,  53. 
John,      member     of     the 
Arran  committee,    1770, 
48. 
MacDavid      or      Davidson 

family,  71,  75. 
Peter,  preacher,  53. 
MacGregor,  Alexander, 

member  of  Arran  com- 
mittee of  1770,  48. 
James,     sent     to     Prince 
Charles     Edward     with 
letter      by      Duke      of 
Hamilton,  65. 
William,  48. 
MacKelvie  family,  71. 
MacKenzie  family,  71. 
MacKillop  family,  71. 
Angus,  prize-winner,  1770, 

50. 
MacKinnon  family,  71,  75. 


MacKinnon,  Alexander,  fam- 
ous preacher,  32. 
Alexander,      prize-winner, 

1777,  5°- 
one    of     clan     killed    in 

encounter  with  Revenue 

officers,  32. 
MacKintosh  family,  keepers 

of   Stone   Globe  of  St. 

Muluy,  35. 
MacKirdy    family,     descent 

of,  72. 
MacLeod,   Dr.    Donald,   on 

Highland          evictions, 

64. 
MacLouie,       MacLoy,       or 

Fullarton  of  Kilmichael 

and  Whitefarland,  family 

of,  71,  72,  75- 
Mac  Master  family,  71. 
MacMhurrich,      MacVurich, 

Murchie,      or       Currie 

family,  72. 
MacMillan,  Angus,  preacher, 

53- 

Daniel,  publisher,  86. 
family,  71. 
of  Knap,  Argyll,  92. 
MacNicol  (or  Nicol)  family, 

71- 

MacNish  family,  71. 
Magnus     Barefoot    in     the 

Hebrides,  130. 
adopts  the  Highland  dress, 

132. 

second  visit  of,  131. 
Molios,    Saint,   Cave  of,   on 

Holy  Island,  10. 
Montgomerys,  the,  in  Arran, 

29. 
Alexander,          Lochranza 

Castle  granted  to,  29. 

of  Skelmorlie,   Lochranza 

Castle  granted  to,  30. 


330 


INDEX 


Muluy,  Saint,   virtues  of  his 

Stone  Globe,  33. 
Munro,  Neil,  his  description 

of     Argyll      in     John 

Splendid,  41. 
Murray,    Patrick,   factor    of 

Arran,  41. 

NicolorMacNicol,Archibald, 

preacher,  53. 
Norman  nobility  of  Scotland, 

miserable     conduct     of, 

1  66,  1  68,  169. 
Norse,  ancient,  type  of  skull, 

100. 
and    the    feudal    system, 

115. 

first  attacks  of,  12  1. 
in  Arran,  114. 
influence      on      Scotland, 

122. 
influence,    Rev.      George 

Henderson  on,  122. 
influence,  A.   H.  Johnson 

on,  124. 
type  to-day,  101. 


>  William,  member  Arran 
committee  of  1770,  48. 


Paterson,    John,     factor    of 

Arran,  on  love  of  country 

of  Arran  people,  4. 
Pennant  on  Arran  men,  61, 

62. 
his  description  of  the  songs 

sung  at  daily  tasks,  62. 
on  families  who  sheltered 

Bruce,  75. 
Pette     (?),    John,     member 

Arran     committee       of 

1770,  48. 
Prehistoric  remains  in  Arran, 

91- 


Prehistoric  remains  in  Arran, 
Dr.  James  Bryce  on,  93. 
Dr.  T.  H.  Bryce  on,  93,  98. 
The  Book  of  Arran    on, 
94,  99- 

Robertson  family,  71. 
Rose,  Edwin   R.,  murder  of, 
on  Goatfell,  26. 

Saint  Molios'  Cell  or  Kil  on 

Holy  Island,  10. 
Bride's,  Lochranza,  25. 
Bride's,  Lamlash,  22. 
Bride's,  Bennan,  25. 
Eoin's  Cell,  25. 
Mary's  (Kilmory),  23. 
Michael's,  Shisken,  25. 
Michael's,  Sannox,  26. 
Michael's,  Glen  Cloy,  25. 
Muluy,  his   Stone   Globe, 

33- 

Patrick's  Cell,  25. 
Scotland,  state  of  agriculture 

in,  42. 
Shaw  family,  71. 

Robert,  prize-winner,  1777, 

50. 

Rev.  William,  maker  of  the 
first    Gaelic   dictionary, 
84. 
his    friendship    with     Dr. 

Samuel  Johnson,  85. 
Shisken  and  Machrie  Moor, 

118. 

Smuggling  in  Arran,  50. 
in  Essex  a  parallel,  50. 
Snorro  Sturleson,  his  account 
of  the  battle  of  Largs, 

147- 
Somerled,  the  Hammer  of  the 

Norsemen,  137. 
an  opposing  force  to  feu- 
dalism, 139. 


INDEX 


231 


Somerled    defeats    Godred, 

142. 

his  character,  138. 
his     death     at     Renfrew, 

143- 
his  great  work  for  Scotland, 

137. 
his    personal    appearance, 

139- 

his  treaty  of  1159,  142. 
marries  daughter  of  King 

Olave  the  Red,  136. 
Steward      Alexander,     the, 

marries       Jane,       Nic 

Somerled,  146. 
Steward's  escape  from  Rothe- 

say  Castle,  209. 
Stewart  family,  71,  75. 

Rev.    Gershom,    minister 

of  Kilbride,  member  of 

Arran  committee,  1770, 

48. 

author  of  the  Old  Statisti- 
cal Account  of  Kilbride. 
Stewarts,     the,     as     rulers, 

1 60. 
Stirling    Bridge,    battle    of, 

1 60. 


Stone  Age  remains  in  Arran, 
92. 

Tacitus's  description   of  the 

Caledonians,  102. 
Thomson  family,  71. 
Alexander,     prize-winner, 

1777,  50. 

burial-place  at  Shisken,  24. 
Thorfin,     Jarl     of     Orkney, 
conquers  part  of  Scot- 
land, 129. 

Tornanschian,    fort    of,    de- 
scribed by  Pennant,  108. 
Bruce  at,  108. 

Viking  Age  in  Arran,  114. 

Wallace,  days  of,  159. 
his   sweetheart    murdered 

by  Haselrig,  165. 
White,      Captain,     on     St. 

Brendan's  cell  at  Skip- 

nish,  78. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Balfour  on,  78. 
Wilson,   Sir   Daniel,  on  the 

Scandinavian     type     of 

skull,  100. 


